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Experimental mixing variability in intersecting natural fractures
Author(s) -
Johnson Joel,
Brown Stephen
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2001gl013446
Subject(s) - streamlines, streaklines, and pathlines , traverse , mixing (physics) , geology , mechanics , flow (mathematics) , fracture (geology) , intersection (aeronautics) , inlet , fluid dynamics , geometry , surface finish , geotechnical engineering , materials science , geomorphology , physics , mathematics , composite material , geodesy , engineering , quantum mechanics , aerospace engineering
Laboratory experiments of flow through epoxy replicas of intersecting natural fractures show that solute transport deviates significantly from predictions of two‐dimensional streamline routing through parallel plate intersections. Surface roughness in intersecting fractures causes two major discrepancies between mixing experiments and the parallel plate predictions. First, the fluids exiting the intersection are not uniformly mixed, but consist of ribbons with varied solute concentrations which tend to follow streamlines in the flow. Some of these streams maintain a nearly pure inlet fluid composition as they exit the intersection and traverse the outlet fracture. Second, when the outlet fluids are collected and homogenized, we find that this complex redirection of streamlines within natural rough‐walled fracture intersections results in more total mixing than is predicted by the parallel plate model.