On the movement of a liquid front in an unsaturated, fractured porous medium, Part 1

The primary aim of this paper is to present approximate analytical solutions of the fracture flow which gives the position of the liquid fracture front as a function of time. These solutions demonstrate that the liquid movement in the fracture can be classified into distinctive time periods, or flow regimes. It is also shown that when plotted versus time using a log-log scale, the liquid fracture front position asymptotically approaches a series of line segments. Two-dimensional numerical simulations were run utilizing input data applicable to the densely welded, fractured tuff found at Yucca Mountain in order to confirm these observations. 19 refs., 15 figs., 8 tabs