Two-phase cement grout propagation in homogeneous water-saturated rock fractures

Abstract

Modeling of cement grout flow in rock fractures is important for the design, monitoring and execution of rock grouting that is widely used in a variety of rock engineering applications. This study presents a mathematical model based on the Reynolds flow equation for cement grout flow in a homogeneous water-saturated rock fracture. The model is based on two-phase flow, i.e. grout as a Bingham fluid and groundwater as a Newtonian fluid, and is used for investigating the importance of the water phase in rock grouting. The modeling results for the two-phase flow generally show the importance of the water phase that can significantly affect the pressure distribution and grout penetration in the fracture, especially under the condition of grout hardening. Such effects depend on the viscosity ratio between the grout and groundwater, which becomes increasingly important for cases with smaller values of the viscosity ratio. The grout density also affects the grout penetration length. Applying an analytical solution based on single-phase flow, i.e. neglecting the impact of groundwater flow, for modeling grout injection, will generally overestimate the penetration length.