Experimental Investigations on Flow and Mass Transport in Stressed Rough Fractures
Name
VillamorLora_villamor_PhD_CEE_2022.pdf
Description
Thesis PDF
Size
35.61 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e32fb27bc97e0487d8fa4298d1b686a8
Author(s)
Villamor Lora, Rafael
Advisor(s)
Einstein, Herbert H.
Date Issued
May 2022
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
The study of flow and transport in rough, fractured media is essential in the development of new energy technologies including enhanced geothermal systems, EGS, and CO2 sequestration. This is a complex problem, mostly due to the number of interacting physical processes in the fractured environment.
In this thesis I introduce a novel pressure-controlled Hele-Shaw cell to investigate different physical processes in rough fractures using 3D-printed rock analogs. This system can measure high-resolution fracture aperture and tracer concentration maps under relevant field stress conditions. Using a series of hydraulic and visual measurements, combined with numerical simulations, I investigate the evolving fracture geometry characteristics, pressure-dependent hydraulic transmissivity, and the nature of mass transport as a function of normal stress.
The experimental results show that as the fracture closes and deforms under increasing normal loading: (1) the contact areas grow in number and size; (2) the flow paths become more focused and tortuous; and (3) the transport dynamics of conservative tracers evolve towards a higher dispersive regime. Moreover, under the applied experimental conditions, I observed excellent agreement between the simulated- and the experimentally measured- hydraulic behavior.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Copyright MIT
Persistent DSpace Link
