The Criteria for Transition of Fluid to Nonlinear Flow for Fractured Rocks: The Role of Fracture Intersection and Aperture

Abstract

Understanding the fluid pattern is of special significance for estimating the hydraulic conductivity of fractured rock masses. The nonlinearity of fluid flow in discrete fracture networks (DFNs) originates from inertial effects and is enhanced by complex geometric topologies, which produces additional viscous friction and is subject to inertia effects, consequently transitioning the fluid to the nonlinear flow regime. Therefore, it is important to obtain the critical conditions for the transition of a fluid from laminar to turbulent flow. To investigate the role of fracture aperture and fracture intersection on the onset of the transition of a fluid to nonlinear flow in fractured rocks, the fluid dynamic computation was performed by solving Navier–Stokes (N–S) equations in DFN models. The results show that the flow flux initially linearly correlates with the hydraulic gradient (J) and the permeability of DFNs initially remains constant. As the hydraulic gradient increases, the flow flux presents a strong nonlinear relationship with the hydraulic gradient, and the permeability decreases dramatically. In particular, significant inertial effects appear earlier with a large fracture aperture or a dense fracture intersection. A critical hydraulic gradient (Jc) is proposed to judge the onset of nonlinear flow. The mathematical expression of Jc and Forchheimer coefficients A and B involving the fracture aperture and fracture intersection density is established through a multiple regression algorithm. Finally, the reliability of the predictive model was verified by comparing the results of the prediction and fluid dynamic computation of a series of DFN models with well-known geometric distributions. The consistency of the fitted equations and a correlation coefficient greater than 0.9 between them indicate that the predictive model proposed in this study is reliable.