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Experimental study of the transport properties of rough self-affine fractures

Plouraboué, Franck and Kurowski, Pascal and Boffa, Jean-Marc and Hulin, Jean-Pierre and Roux, Stéphane Experimental study of the transport properties of rough self-affine fractures. (2000) Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, 46 (3-4). 295-318. ISSN 0169-7722

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0169-7722(00)00134-0

Abstract

An experimental study of the transport properties of fluid-saturated joints composed of two complementary rough fracture surfaces, translated with respect to each other and brought in contact, is reported. Quantitative roughness measurements on different fractured granite samples show that the surfaces have a self-affine geometry from which the dependence of the mean aperture on the relative displacement of fracture surfaces kept in contact can be predicted. Variations of the hydraulic and electrical conductances of the joint are measured as functions of its mean aperture. A simple parallel plane model accounts for the global trend of the measurements, but significant deviations are observed when a relative lateral displacement of the surfaces is introduced. A theoretical analysis of their origin shows that they are due both to the randomness of the aperture field and to a nonzero local slope of the surface near the injection hole; the corresponding conductivity fluctuation amplitudes have power law and linear variations with the lateral displacement, and are enhanced by the radial injection geometry.

Item Type:Article
Additional Information:Thanks to Elsevier editor. The original PDF is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01697722
HAL Id:hal-03604955
Audience (journal):International peer-reviewed journal
Uncontrolled Keywords:
Institution:French research institutions > Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS (FRANCE)
Other partners > Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles - ESPCI (FRANCE)
Université de Toulouse > Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse - Toulouse INP (FRANCE)
Other partners > Université de Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (FRANCE)
Other partners > Saint-Gobain (FRANCE)
Other partners > Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris 6 - UPMC (FRANCE)
Université de Toulouse > Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT3 (FRANCE)
Other partners > Université Paris-Sud 11 (FRANCE)
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Deposited On:04 May 2012 09:15

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