Parametric study of factors affecting fluid flow through a fracture

Abstract

Understanding the flow behavior through fractures is critically important in a wide variety of applications. In many situations, the fluid flow can be highly irregular and non-linear in nature. Numerical simulation can be employed to simulate such conditions which are difficult to replicate in laboratory experiments. Therefore, a parametric study has been conducted on the fluid flow through micro-fracture over a large range of inlet pressure, fluid density, fluid viscosity, temperature, joint roughness coefficient (JRC), and fracture using finite element analysis. Irregular fracture profiles were created using Barton’s joint roughness coefficient. The Navier-Stokes (NS) equation was used to simulate the flow of water in those micro-fractures. The result showed that the fracture, fluid, and ambient conditions have a wide and varied effect on the fluid flow behavior. The interrelationship between these parameters was also studied. The model simulation provided result in the form of velocity and pressure drop profile, which can be used to determine the behavior of flow under different condition. The volumetric flow was calculated for each condition and has been plotted against the corresponding parameter to study the interrelationship.