The objective of this paper is to investigate the effects of wall surface roughness on fluid flow through rock fractures. A wavelet analysis technique was developed to define a mathematical criterion ...for decomposing the original wall surface roughness profiles of a fracture into a high-frequency (secondary roughness) profile and a low-frequency (primary roughness) profile, in order to examine their impacts on fluid flow, by solving the Navier–Stokes equations (NSE) without linearization, using a self-developed 2D finite volume method (FVM) code. The results indicate that the high-frequency secondary roughness is the main cause for dynamic evolution of Eddy flow regions in the fracture flow field, besides the Reynolds number (Re). In the original fracture model with the high-frequency secondary roughness, our results show that fluid flow fields are not only generally non-linear, but also with non-stop generation and motions of eddies in the boundary layer regions of rough fractures when the Re=1000 in this study, which will affect the solute transport processes in fractured rock masses. The complete NSE were solved without removing acceleration and inertial terms, so that the impacts of surface roughness on the nonlinear and dynamic flow behavior of rock fractures were calculated and visualized more accurately, which is important for modeling mass and energy transport processes in fractures and fractured rock masses.
•Wavelet representations of rock fracture surface roughness.•Eddy flow impacts on correlation between surface roughness and hydraulic aperture.•Solution of Navier–Stokes equations for Eddy flow evolutions in rock fractures.
Nonlinear flow in 3D rough-walled rock fractures is simulated by solving the Navier-Stokes equations. The emphasis is on the impact of shear-caused aperture changes (variable apertures and asperity ...contacts) and flow conditions (inertial term) upon nonlinear flow behavior. In order to compare shear effects, two 3D fracture models, with and without shear, were established with identical initial rough-walled surfaces topographies of a realistic rock sample. Five groups of simulations with different inflow boundary conditions of flowrates/Reynolds numbers (Re) were conducted to demonstrate shear-enhanced nonlinearity of flow fields and limitations of local cubic law (LCL) approach. The flow results clearly show channeling flow along the preferential paths, transverse flow around the contact spots, and eddy flows behind contact spots with increasing Re, which cannot be observed in 2D models. The effective transmissivity of the 3D fracture model was calculated from the modeling results of velocity and pressure fields. The results showed that the effective transmissivity is a function of local apertures with important uncertainties even when Re is small (i.e. Re = 0.4 in this study), thus the validity of the transmissivity evaluation using LCL approach for nonlinear flow in 3D rough-walled rock fractures is questionable.
•Channeling and eddy flow behaviors in 3D rough-walled rock fractures enhanced by shear created asperity contacts.•Nonlinear relationship between flowrates and pressure gradients in the 3D fractures.•Nondeterministic relationship between effective transmissivity and local apertures.•Limitations of simplified 2D models in modeling nonlinear flow behaviors in rough-walled fractures.
•Direct simulation of fluid flow and solute transport in fracture-matrix systems.•Channeling flow phenomenon in a 3D rough-walled rock fracture intersection.•Impact of channeling flow on solute ...mixing at the fracture intersection.•Dependence of mixing ratio of Péclet number (Pe) and flow directionality.
The processes of fluid flow and solute transport through rock fractures are of primary importance in environmental engineering and geosciences. This study presented numerical modeling results of fluid flow and solute transport in a 3D rock fracture-matrix system with an orthogonal intersection of two rough-walled rock fractures. The rough-walled fracture geometry models were built from laser-scanned data of a real rock surface, for a realistic representation of natural rock fracture surface roughness. The fluid flow in the two intersected fractures and solute transport in the fracture-matrix system were simulated by solving the Navier–Stokes equations (NSE) and transport equation in the entire system. The dependence of mixing on Péclet number (Pe) and flow directionality features were analyzed. The results directly visualized important channeling flow patterns that significantly enhanced the solute mixing process at the rough-walled fracture intersection. The illustrated channeling flow and associated impacts on mixing are particularly important in the prediction of solute transport in natural fractured rocks, especially when discrete fracture network (DFN) approach is applied.
Social media informs the public about the most important events and conveys important information. Before, during, and after disasters, social media are used to disseminate information about ...disasters and collect data relevant to the implementation of preparedness, response, and recovery activities and measures. Social networks are effective in disseminating information and warnings, as well as in educating the public. The subject of the research is examining the influence of demographic factors on the effectiveness of social media in informing the public about the risks of disasters. Using an online survey questionnaire and according to the snowball principle, a survey of 247 respondents was conducted in 2022. The research results show no statistically significant relationship between the respondents’ education level and the assessment of the effectiveness of social media reporting on disasters. Using social media can improve communication between stakeholders in disaster management and facilitate coordination of efforts, fostering communication and allocation of resources. To effectively use social media in disaster management, decision-makers in the disaster management system must be aware of new technologies, their disadvantages and advantages, and ways to collect and analyze data from social networks.
The impact of normal stress-induced closure on fluid flow and solute transport in a single rock fracture is demonstrated in this study. The fracture is created from a measured surface of a granite ...rock sample. The Bandis model is used to calculate the fracture closure due to normal stress, and the fluid flow is simulated by solving the Reynold equation. The Lagrangian particle tracking method is applied to modeling the advective transport in the fracture. The results show that the normal stress significantly affects fluid flow and solute transport in rock fractures. It causes fracture closure and creates asperity contact areas, which significantly reduces the effective hydraulic aperture and enhances flow channeling. Consequently, the reduced aperture and enhanced channeling affect travel time distributions. In particular, the enhanced channeling results in enhanced first arriving and tailing behaviors for solute transport. The fracture normal stiffness correlates linearly with the 5th and 95th percentiles of the normalized travel time. The finding from this study may help to better understand the stress-dependent solute transport processes in natural rock fractures.
Bogolyubov quasiparticles move in a practically uniform magnetic field in the vortex state of high-temperature cuprate superconductors. When set in motion by an externally applied heat current, the ...quasiparticles' trajectories may bend, causing a temperature gradient perpendicular to the heat current and the applied magnetic field, resulting in the thermal Hall effect. Here we relate this effect to the Berry curvature of quasiparticle magnetic sub-bands, and calculate the dependence of the intrinsic thermal Hall conductivity on superconductor's temperature, magnetic field and the amplitude of the d-wave pairing. The intrinsic contribution to thermal Hall conductivity displays a rapid onset with increasing temperature, which compares favourably with existing experiments at high magnetic field on the highest purity samples. Because such temperature onset is related to the pairing amplitude, our finding may help to settle a much-debated question of the bulk value of the pairing strength in cuprate superconductors in magnetic field.