Author(s): Torben O. Sonnenborg; Charlotte Tofteng; K. Hogh Jensen; Michael B. Butts
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Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Laboratory investigations of flow and transport in a fractured porous medium are presented. A two-dimensional experimental cell was constructed containing the porous matrix material bisected by a single fracture. This matrix/fracture system was characterised hydraulically through single-phase flow experiments to determine the effective conductivity for the total system and estimate the hydraulic aperture of the fracture. Additional information about the fracture system was obtained from solute transport experiments, where breakthrough curves of a conservative tracer were measured at the outlet of the flume. By isolating outflow from the fracture and from different sections of the matrix these experiments provide information about fracture/matrix interaction. Comparison with numerical simulations shows that aperture variations significantly influence the solute transfer between the matrix and the fracture.
Year: 1997