scholarly journals Multiscale Roughness Influence on Conservative Solute Transport in Self-affine Fractures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhi Dou ◽  
Brent Sleep ◽  
Hongbin Zhan ◽  
Zhifang Zhou ◽  
Jinguo Wang

Abstract. In this article, the influence of multiscale roughness on transport of a conservative solute through a self-affine fracture was investigated. The fracture roughness was decomposed into two different scales (i.e., a small-scale stationary secondary roughness superimposed on a large-scale non-stationary primary roughness) by a wavelet analysis technique. The fluid flow in the single fracture was characterized by Forchheimer's law and exhibited nonlinear flow features such as eddies and tortuous streamlines. The results indicated that the small-scale secondary roughness was primarily responsible for the nonlinear flow features. Numerical simulations of asymptotic conservative solute transport showed non-Fickian transport characteristics (i.e., early arrivals and long tails) in breakthrough curves (BTCs) and in residence time distributions (RTDs) with and without consideration of the secondary roughness. Analysis of multiscale BTCs and RTDs showed that the small-scale secondary roughness played a significant role in enhancing the non-Fickian transport characteristics. Removing small-scale secondary roughness delayed the arrival time and shortened the tail. The peak concentrations in BTCs decreased as the secondary roughness was removed, implying that the secondary roughness could also enhance the solute dilution. Fitting the one-dimensional (1D) Fickian advection-dispersion equation (ADE) to the numerical BTCs resulted in considerable errors that decreased with the small-scale secondary roughness being removed. The 1D mobile-immobile model (MIM) provided a better fit to the numerical BTCs and inclusion of the small-scale secondary roughness in numerical simulations resulted in a decreasing MIM mobile domain fraction and an increasing mass exchange rate between immobile and mobile domains.

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Albert Kwame Kwaw ◽  
Zhi Dou ◽  
Jinguo Wang ◽  
Yuting Zhang ◽  
Xueyi Zhang ◽  
...  

In this study, four homogeneous porous media (HPM1-HPM4), consisting of distinct proportions of sand-sized and clay-sized solid beads, were prepared and used as single fracture infills. Flow and nonreactive solute transport experiments in HPM1-HPM4 under three flow rates were conducted, and the measured breakthrough curves (BTCs) were quantified using conventional advection-dispersion equation (ADE), mobile-immobile model (MIM), and continuous time random walk (CTRW) model with truncated power law transition time distribution. The measured BTCs showed stronger non-Fickian behaviour in HPM2-HPM4 (which had clay) than in HPM1 (which had no clay), implying that clay enhanced the non-Fickian transport. As the fraction of clay increased, the global error of ADE fits also increased, affirming the inefficiency of ADE in capturing the clay-induced non-Fickian behaviour. MIM and CTRW performed better in capturing the non-Fickian behaviour. Nonetheless, CTRW’s performance was robust. 12.5% and 25% of clay in HPM2 and HPM3, respectively, decreased the flowing fluid region and increased the solute exchange rate between the flowing and stagnant fluid regions in MIM. For CTRW, the power law exponent ( β CTRW ) values were 1.96, 1.75, and 1.63 in HPM1-HPM3, respectively, implying enhanced non-Fickian behaviour. However, for HPM4, whose clay fraction was 50%, the β CTRW value was 1.87, implying a deviation in the trend of non-Fickian enhancement with increasing clay fraction. This deviation indicated that non-Fickian behaviour enhancement depended on the fraction of clay present. Moreover, increasing flow rate enhanced the non-Fickian transport based on β CTRW .


Geofluids ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaosan Yan ◽  
Jiazhong Qian ◽  
Lei Ma ◽  
Mu Wang ◽  
Aofeng Hu

Accurate prediction of solute transport processes in a fracture aquifer is an important task not only for proper management of the groundwater but also for pollution control. A key issue of this task is how to accurately obtain the experimental data and to analyze the solute transport in fracture in subsurface hydrology, which would greatly help us to understand the releasing mechanism and transport of the solute in a fracture. In this study, a fracture experiment is conducted in a laboratory based on previous studies. The fracture used with a length of 60 cm and a width of 10 cm is sealed with glass glue to avoid leakage of tracer due to uneven fracture walls. The sodium chloride (NaCl) solute is injected from the left of the fracture. And an electrical conductivity monitoring system is installed on the right of the fracture. Then breakthrough curves (BTCs) of solute transport are fitted using the classical advection-dispersion equation (ADE) and the truncation power-law function (TPL) model in the package of the continuous time random walk (CTRW). The results show that the flow satisfies non-Darcian law in the experimental conditions, which can be better fitted using the Forchheimer equation and Izbash equation. The solute transport presents non-Fickian phenomena and shows a long tailing. The fitting results of the TPL model are far better than ADE in fitting the long tailing at three different flow velocities. Furthermore, electrical conductivity monitoring method not only is effective but also has an advantage of no disturbance to water and concentration fields in a fracture.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 847
Author(s):  
Lide Wei ◽  
Changfu Wei ◽  
Sugang Sui

This paper suggests a large-scale three-dimensional numerical simulation method to investigate the fluorine pollution near a slag yard. The large-scale three-dimensional numerical simulation method included an experimental investigation, laboratory studies of solute transport during absorption of water by soil, and large-scale three-dimensional numerical simulations of solute transport. The experimental results showed that the concentrations of fluorine from smelting slag and construction waste soil were well over the discharge limit of 0.1 kg/m3 recommended by Chinese guidelines. The key parameters of the materials used for large-scale three-dimensional numerical simulations were determined based on an experimental investigation, laboratory studies, and soil saturation of survey results and back analyses. A large-scale three-dimensional numerical simulation of solute transport was performed, and its results were compared to the experiment results. The simulation results showed that the clay near the slag had a high saturation of approximately 0.9, consistent with the survey results. Comparison of the results showed that the results of the numerical simulation of solute transport and the test results were nearly identical, and that the numerical simulation results could be used as the basis for groundwater environmental evaluation.


1984 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 217-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hakuro Oguchi ◽  
Osamu Inoue

This paper aims to elucidate the structure of the turbulent mixing layers, especially, its dependence on initial disturbances. The mixing layers are produced by setting a woven-wire screen perpendicular to the freestream in the test section of a wind tunnel to obstruct part of the flow. Three kinds of model geometry are treated; these model screens produced mixing layers which may be regarded as the equivalents of the plane mixing layer and of two-dimensional and axisymmetric wakes issuing into ambient streams of higher velocity. The initial disturbances are imposed by installing thin rods of various sizes along the edge of the screen or at the origin of the mixing layer. Flow features are visualized by the smoke-wire method. Statistical quantities are measured by a laser-Doppler velocimeter. In all cases large-scale transverse vortices seem to persist, although comparatively small-scale vortices are superimposed on the flow field in the mixing layer. The mixing layers are in self-preserving state at least up to third-order moments, but the self-preserving state is different in each case. The growth rates of the mixing layer are shown to depend strongly on the initial disturbance imposed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1073-1076 ◽  
pp. 1604-1608
Author(s):  
Zhou Chen ◽  
Jin Guo Wang ◽  
Wen Zhang Zhang ◽  
Jia Hui Shi

Solute transport through riparian zone was studied experimentally and numerically with the consideration of silt layer. The silt layer had markable change on flow field and lead to a significant variation of the breakthrough curves (BTCs). BTCs of solute tracer tests show non-Fickian features as early arrival of peak value and long tailings. BTCs were fitted by advection dispersion equation (ADE), mobile and immobile model (MIM) and the continuous time random walk (CTRW) models. MIM and CTRW can fit BTCs better than ADE and MIM fit better on the capture of the peak value and CTRW fit better in description of the long tailing.


Author(s):  
Dhruv Balwada ◽  
Qiyu Xiao ◽  
Shafer Smith ◽  
Ryan Abernathey ◽  
Alison R. Gray

AbstractIt has been hypothesized that submesoscale flows play an important role in the vertical transport of climatically important tracers, due to their strong associated vertical velocities. However, the multi-scale, non-linear, and Lagrangian nature of transport makes it challenging to attribute proportions of the tracer fluxes to certain processes, scales, regions, or features. Here we show that criteria based on the surface vorticity and strain joint probability distribution function (JPDF) effectively decomposes the surface velocity field into distinguishable flow regions, and different flow features, like fronts or eddies, are contained in different flow regions. The JPDF has a distinct shape and approximately parses the flow into different scales, as stronger velocity gradients are usually associated with smaller scales. Conditioning the vertical tracer transport on the vorticity-strain JPDF can therefore help to attribute the transport to different types of flows and scales. Applied to a set of idealized Antarctic Circumpolar Current simulations that vary only in horizontal resolution, this diagnostic approach demonstrates that small-scale strain dominated regions that are generally associated with submesoscale fronts, despite their minuscule spatial footprint, play an outsized role in exchanging tracers across the mixed layer base and are an important contributor to the large-scale tracer budgets. Resolving these flows not only adds extra flux at the small scales, but also enhances the flux due to the larger-scale flows.


Lithosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (Special 3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruigang Zhang ◽  
Mingxi Chu ◽  
Yong Liu ◽  
Dun Wu ◽  
Wenyong Zhang

Abstract The conventional advection-dispersion equation (ADE) has been widely used to describe the solute transport in porous media. However, it cannot interpret the phenomena of the early arrival and long tailing in breakthrough curves (BTCs). In this study, we aim to experimentally investigate the behaviors of the solute transport in both homogeneous and heterogeneous porous media. The linear-asymptotic model (LAF solution) with scale-dependent dispersivity was used to fit the BTCs, which was compared with the results of the ADE model and the conventional truncated power-law (TPL) model. Results indicate that (1) the LAF model with linear scale-dependent dispersivity could better capture the evolution of BTCs than the ADE model; (2) dispersivity initially increases linearly with the travel distance and is stable at some limited value over a large distance, and a threshold value of the travel distance is provided to reflect the constant dispersivity; and (3) compared with the TPL model, both the LAF and ADE models can capture the behavior of solute transport as a whole. For fitting the early arrival, the LAF model is less than the TPL; however, the LAF model is more concise in mathematics and its application will be studied in the future.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 623-634 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Georgescu ◽  
S. Tascu ◽  
M. Caian ◽  
D. Banciu

Abstract. During winter cold strong winds associated with snowfalls are not unusual for South and Southeastern Romania. The episode of 2–4 January 2008 was less usual due to its intensity and persistence. It happened after a long period (autumn 2006–autumn 2007) of mainly southerly circulations inducing warm weather, when the absolute record of the maximum temperature was registered. The important snowfalls and snowdrifts, leading to a consistent snow layer (up to 100 cm), produced serious transport and electricity supply perturbations. Since this atypical local weather event was not correctly represented by the operational numerical forecasts, several cross-comparison numerical simulations were performed to analyze the relative role of the coupler/coupling models and to compare two ways of process-scale uncertainties mitigation: optimizing the forecast range and performing ensemble forecast through the perturbation of the lateral boundary conditions. The results underline, for this case, the importance of physical parametrization package on the first place and secondary, the importance of the model horizontal resolution. The resolution increase is beneficial only in the local process representation; on larger scale it may either improve or decrease the accuracy effect, depending on the specified nudging between large-scale and small-scale information. The event capture is likely to be favored by two elements: a more appropriate time-scale of the event's physics and the quality of the transmitted large-scale information. Concerning the time scale, the statistics on skill as a function of forecast range are shown to be a useful tool in order to increase the accuracy of the numerical simulations. Ensembles forecasting versus resolution increase experiments indicate, for such atypical events, an interesting supply in the forecast accuracy through the ensemble method when applied to correct the minimum skill of the deterministic forecast.


Fluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Iman Borazjani

Copepods are small aquatic creatures which are abundant in oceans as a major food source for fish, thereby playing a vital role in marine ecology. Because of their role in the food chain, copepods have been subject to intense research through different perspectives from anatomy, form-function biology, to ecology. Numerical simulations can uniquely support such investigations by quantifying: (i) the force and flow generated by different parts of the body, thereby clarify the form-function relation of each part; (ii) the relation between the small-scale flow around animal and the large-scale (e.g., oceanic) flow of its surroundings; and (iii) the flow and its energetics, thereby answering ecological questions, particularly, the three major survival tasks, i.e., feeding, predator avoidance, and mate-finding. Nevertheless, such numerical simulations need to overcome challenges involving complex anatomic shape of copepods, multiple moving appendages, resolving different scales (appendage-, animal- to large-scale). The numerical methods capable of handling such problems and some recent simulations are reviewed. At the end, future developments necessary to simulate copepods from animal- to surrounding-scale are discussed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 786 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul K. Newton

The paper by Dritschel et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 783, 2015, pp. 1–22) describes the long-time behaviour of inviscid two-dimensional fluid dynamics on the surface of a sphere. At issue is whether the flow settles down to an equilibrium or whether, for generic (random) initial conditions, the long-time solution is periodic, quasi-periodic or chaotic. While it might be surprising that this issue is not settled in the literature, it is important to keep in mind that the Euler equations form a dissipationless Hamiltonian system, hence the set of equations only redistributes the initial vorticity, generating smaller and smaller scales, while keeping kinetic energy, angular impulse and an infinite family of vorticity moments (Casimirs) intact. While special solutions that never settle down to an equilibrium state can be constructed using point vortices, vortex patches and other distributions, the fate of random initial conditions is a trickier problem. Previous statistical theories indicate that the long-time state should be a stationary large-scale distribution of vorticity. By carrying out careful numerical simulations using two different methods, the authors make a compelling case that the generic long-time state resembles a large-scale oscillating quadrupolar vorticity field, surrounded by persistent small-scale vortices. While numerical simulations can never conclusively settle this issue, the results might help guide future theories that seek to prove the existence of such an interesting dynamical long-time state.


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