Numerical simulation of fracture permeability evolution due to reactive transport and pressure solution processes

Modeling fracture permeability evolution is of great interest in various geotechnical applications including underground waste repositories, carbon capture and storage, and engineered geothermal systems where fractures dominate transport behaviors. In this study, a numerical model is presented to simulate fracture permeability evolution due to reactive transport and pressure solution processes in single fractures. The model was developed within the international benchmarking project for radioactive waste disposals, DECOVALEX 2015 (Task C1). The model combines bulk behavior in pore spaces with intergranular process at asperity contacts. Hydraulic flow and reactive transport including mineral dissolution and precipitation in fracture pore space are simulated using the Galerkin finite element method. A pressure solution model developed by Taron and Elsworth (2010 JGR) is applied to simulating stress-enhanced dissolution, solute exchange with pore space, and volume removal at grain contacts. Fracture aperture and contact area ratio are updated as a result of the pore-space reaction and intergranular dissolution. In order to increase robustness and time step size, relevant processes are monolithically coupled with the simulations. The model is implemented in a scientific open-source project OpenGeoSys (www.opengeosys.org) for numerical simulation of thermo-hydro-mechanical/chemical processes in porous and fractured media. Numerical results are compared to previous experiment performed by Yasuhara et al. (2006) on flow through fractures in the Arkansas novaculite sample. The novaculite is approximated as pure quartz aggregates. Only with fitted quartz dissolution rate constants and solubility is the current model capable of reproducing observed hydraulic aperture reduction and aqueous silicate concentrations. Future work will examine reaction parameters and further validate the model against experimental results.