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Upscaling particle transport in discrete fracture networks: 1. Nonreactive tracers
Author(s) -
Frampton A.,
Cvetkovic V.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2006wr005334
Subject(s) - tracer , fracture (geology) , scale (ratio) , eulerian path , particle (ecology) , mechanics , statistical physics , flow (mathematics) , network model , a priori and a posteriori , geology , mathematics , geotechnical engineering , lagrangian , computer science , physics , data mining , oceanography , philosophy , epistemology , quantum mechanics , nuclear physics
We study tracer transport through discrete fracture networks and develop a methodology for upscaling particle breakthrough curves on the basis of fracture segment data. Our prime interest is to model the early arrival and peak of tracer breakthrough curves, i.e., to capture the bulk of the tracer mass arrival. This study is based on two‐dimensional discrete fracture network simulations, combined with a truncated one‐sided stable distribution as a model for upscaling particle transitions. Results indicate that this model can accurately capture the bulk mass and peak of the breakthrough distributions for an upscaled distance of at least 1 order of magnitude in terms of transport scale, which for our simulations is about 2 orders of magnitude greater than the mean fracture segment scale. We also introduce an accurate mapping algorithm for transforming Eulerian into Lagrangian flow statistics, without a priori knowledge of network connectivity.