Methodology for Seamlessly Coupling Discrete Fracture Network and 3D Continuum Models of Flow and Transport in Fractured Porous Media
Abstract
Modeling tools for solving physics and chemistry of flow and transport in porous and fractured media are generally divided between continuum approaches and discrete fracture network (DFN) models. However, there are classes of problems where it makes sense to model part of the domain as continuum and part of the domain as a DFN. We have developed a prototype workflow that allows us to seamlessly couple and model different parts of the computational domain as either continuum or DFN. This approach may be chosen for computational efficiency when a large part of the domain may have flow/transport limited to a few fractures and/or when the conceptual model of controls on flow/transport differs across the domain of interest. For example, a 3D continuum may provide a reasonable representation of flow and transport through alluvium, while a DFN may represent the preferential flow and transport through fractures in tight fractured rock better.
The method for coupling continua and DFNs is presented along with examples of applications. These applications include: wetting of a bentonite backfill by H2O saturated fractures that intersect an underground repository disposal hole, multi-phase flow of CO2and H2O from a CO2reservoir through fractured caprock due to CO2injection, and barometric pumping of gas along fractures from an underground cavity to the ground surface.- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.H53A..07G
- Keywords:
-
- 1805 Computational hydrology;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1829 Groundwater hydrology;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1832 Groundwater transport;
- HYDROLOGYDE: 1869 Stochastic hydrology;
- HYDROLOGY