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Constraints on Flow Regimes in Wide-Aperture Fractures.

DE2005836398

Publication Date	2004
Personal Author	Ghezzehei, T. A.
Page Count	52
Abstract	In recent years, significant advances have been made in our understanding of the complex flow processes in individual fractures, aided by flow visualization experiments and conceptual modeling efforts. These advances have led to the recognition of several flow regimes in individual fractures subjected to different initial and boundary conditions. Of these, the most important regimes are film flow, rivulet flow, and sliding of droplets. The existence of such significantly dissimilar flow regimes has been a major hindrance in the development of self-consistent conceptual models of flow for single fractures that encompass all the flow regimes. The objective of this study is to delineate the existence of the different flow regimes in individual fractures. For steady-state flow conditions, we developed physical constraints on the different flow regimes that satisfy minimum energy configurations, which enabled us to segregate the wide range of fracture transmissivity (volumetric flow rate per fracture width) into several flow regimes.
Keywords	Geologic structures Flow models Constraints Turbulence Boundary conditions Visualization Cross sections
Source Agency	Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee
Corporate Authors	Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA. Earth Sciences Division.; Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Supplemental Notes	Sponsored by Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Document Type	Technical Report
NTIS Issue Number	200526

Constraints on Flow Regimes in Wide-Aperture Fractures.

Constraints on Flow Regimes in Wide-Aperture Fractures.
DE2005836398

Publication Date	2004
Personal Author	Ghezzehei, T. A.
Page Count	52
Abstract	In recent years, significant advances have been made in our understanding of the complex flow processes in individual fractures, aided by flow visualization experiments and conceptual modeling efforts. These advances have led to the recognition of several flow regimes in individual fractures subjected to different initial and boundary conditions. Of these, the most important regimes are film flow, rivulet flow, and sliding of droplets. The existence of such significantly dissimilar flow regimes has been a major hindrance in the development of self-consistent conceptual models of flow for single fractures that encompass all the flow regimes. The objective of this study is to delineate the existence of the different flow regimes in individual fractures. For steady-state flow conditions, we developed physical constraints on the different flow regimes that satisfy minimum energy configurations, which enabled us to segregate the wide range of fracture transmissivity (volumetric flow rate per fracture width) into several flow regimes.
Keywords	Geologic structures Flow models Constraints Turbulence Boundary conditions Visualization Cross sections
Source Agency	Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee
Corporate Authors	Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA. Earth Sciences Division.; Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Supplemental Notes	Sponsored by Department of Energy, Washington, DC.
Document Type	Technical Report
NTIS Issue Number	200526