Mesoscopic evaluation of non-linear fluid flow through rough-walled fractures using 'T model'

The main subject of this paper is to examine the mesoscopic non-linear fluid flow through three-dimensional rough-walled fractures. Computational domain of an artificial three-dimensional fracture was generated and both laminar and turbulent flow through the void specimen were simulated using finite volume method for a wide range of flow rates. Geometrical domain of the fracture was discretized to 125 sub-fractures and calculated average pressure drop of sub-fractures from each flow rate of turbulent flow simulation were compared with those predicted by T model. The results show that: 1) by increasing Reynolds number, the difference between laminar and turbulent flow simulations increases as the relative error increases from 3.2% to 17.3% for Reynolds number of 4.5 to 89.5, respectively, 2) the effect of non-linear flow increases with Reynolds number and the Forchheimer law was fitted very well to both laminar and turbulent flow simulations, and T model predictions, 2) there is an appropriate correspondence between predicted sub-fracture's pressure drops obtained by T model and turbulent flow simulation. Copyright 2013 ARMA, American Rock Mechanics Association