Objectives/Scope
Understanding the fundamental mechanisms of fracture-matrix fluid exchange is crucial for the modeling of fractured reservoirs. Traditionally, high-resolution simulations for flow in fractures often neglect the effect of matrix contribution on the fracture hydraulic behavior. In this study, we develop a multi-scale approach to capture the matrix-fracture leakage interaction...
Geothermal energy has gained increasing attention in recent years as a sustainable and low-carbon energy source. Many geothermal systems are hosted in highly fractured rocks, whose simulation requires robust modelling that is capable of handling strongly coupled and nonlinear processes of fluid flow and heat transfer. The complex geometry and hydrodynamic characteristics of fracture networks...
Heat transfer in fractured rock systems plays a fundamental role in the exploitation of deep geothermal resources. Fractures act as the primary conduits for fluid flow and advective heat transport, whereas heat exchange with the surrounding rock matrix occurs mainly through diffusion. These mechanisms operate over markedly different spatial and temporal scales, and their combined effect is...
Internal erosion causes dam failures, sinkholes, and clogging of wells. It is initiated when groundwater flow induces critical hydraulic forces to detach soil particles from the grain skeleton. This contribution focuses on the particle transport itself and adopts a continuum mechanical model [2].
Continuum-mechanical models do not resolve individual particle trajectories; however, they...
Post-injection seismicity remains a key challenge for the sustainable deployment of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), as seismic activity may persist or even intensify after injection has ceased. This behaviour was observed at the Basel, Switzerland, and Pohang, South Korea, EGS development sites, where the maximum magnitudes of M3.2 and M5.4, respectively, occurred after reservoir...
Human-induced earthquakes, triggered by fluid injection or extraction, have become a growing concern in energy-related activities. These events occur when fluid pressure changes destabilize faults, leading to rupture that propagates away from the hypocenter as two crack tips. While theoretically the rupture should be symmetric, many large earthquakes exhibit strong asymmetry, propagating...
Fluid injection into fractured reservoirs can produce either clustered or front like induced seismicity, yet the controlling role of fracture network parameters remains poorly understood. This study uses a fully coupled hydro mechanical (HM) model in combination with the discrete fracture network (DFN) approach to quantify how fracture length scaling, density, and connectivity (as represented...
In this study, a large number of synthetic 2D and 3D fracture networks are constructed based on the power-law length model, spanning a wide range of length exponents and fracture intensities. The 3D fracture networks are generated by FracLab, with optimized mesh quality to achieve high computational efficiency. Geomechanical modeling is employed to capture the mechanical responses of fractured...
The safety assessment of radioactive waste repositories depends on a fundamental understanding of coupled hydro-mechanical (HM) processes in the near-field. In this study, we investigate the desiccation-induced fracturing of Opalinus Clay, a potential host rock, triggered by seasonal ventilation in underground galleries. We specifically focus on the Cyclic-Deformation (CD-A) experiment at the...
Fractures play a fundamental role in controlling the hydraulic and mechanical response of geological formations, with direct implications for subsurface energy applications such as hydrocarbon production, CO₂ sequestration, geothermal systems, and underground hydrogen storage (UHS). In particular, UHS operations involve repeated injection and withdrawal cycles that induce successive loading...
Mixing and reaction in porous and fractured media are commonly assumed to occur under slow, viscosity-dominated flow conditions where fluid inertia is negligible and pore-scale transport is governed by viscosity-dominated advection with weak transverse mixing. In this presentation, we show that this assumption breaks down even at weak inertial levels, well before any transition to turbulence....
Advective mixing in fracture networks plays a central role in many environmental and geological processes by influencing contaminant dispersion, dilution, and mixing-driven biogeochemical reactions [1]. While longitudinal dispersion in fracture networks has received considerable attention, the dynamics of mixing, which governs the creation of fine concentration scales and reactive outcomes,...
Natural fracture networks control fluid flow in numerous engineering and environmental scenarios, thus inducing flow velocities at which fluid inertia becomes significant. Yet, traditional fracture-flow models assume laminar Newtonian flow and neglect the interplay between fluid inertia and non-Newtonian rheology. This study presents the first Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) investigation of...
Non-Newtonian fluids play an important role in enhanced oil recovery, drilling engineering, and fracture stimulation of wells. Yet, in much of the related numerical modelling, a Newtonian rheology is assumed, ignoring the impact of fluid viscosity variation with flow rate on engineering outcomes.
Here, we examine the influence of a non-Newtonian rheology on flow structures and distributions...
Geological storage of anthropogenic CO₂ and underground hydrogen energy storage rely not only on transport processes within porous formations, but also critically on the hydraulic behaviour of natural and induced fractures. Leakage through interconnected fracture and fault networks of the caprock remains one of the major risks for long-term containment. Accurate assessment of storage...
Accurate prediction of fluid transport and storage capacity in heterogeneous fractured media remains an important challenge for large-scale CO₂ and hydrogen storage. These phenomena directly impact the flow capacity and long-term integrity of storage sites, particularly under geomechanical perturbations such as induced seismicity or pressure evolution [1]. Emerging evidence suggests that...
Fractures significantly influence flow and transport in subsurface geological systems. Quantifying and modeling the complex transport behavior remains difficult due to the spatially discrete nature of fractures combined with uncertainty in fracture geometry, intra- and inter-fracture conductivity heterogeneity, and the variation of these properties across rock lithologies and deformation...
Efficient and accurate simulation of flow and transport in fractured porous media is vital in a variety of applications including carbon sequestration, geothermal energy, and hydrocarbon production. Usually, the uncertainties in these applications are high, which necessitates the use of fast numerical methods to efficiently sample a large number of probable scenarios.
One category of...
The simulation of single- and multiphase flow in fractured porous media has been the topic of ongoing research for decades with wide-ranging applications in the geosciences and beyond. Among the approaches previously suggested, embedded discrete fracture models (EDFM) and projection-EDFM (or pEDFM) distinguish themselves by providing accurate results that explicitly include matrix-fracture...
Assessing fault leakage risk in CO₂ storage sites requires quantifying uncertainty across numerous poorly-constrained parameters. For structurally complex systems with multiple faults, this creates a high-dimensional uncertainty space that is computationally prohibitive for traditional 3D simulation approaches. We address this challenge using a vertically integrated modelling framework that...
Geological carbon sequestration has been widely recognized as a promising strategy for mitigating CO₂ emissions by storing carbon dioxide in subsurface geological formations, such as saline aquifers. While recent studies have largely focused on optimizing CO₂ trapping mechanisms to improve storage efficiency, the flow dynamics of CO₂ plume migration—particularly the development of viscous and...
P N R L Sudhishna a, Sourav Mondal a*, Tridib Kumar Mondal b, Chris Aldrich c, Milin K Shah c
a Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal-721302.
b Geological Studies Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, West Bengal-700108.
c Western Australian School of Mines, Mineral, Energy and Chemical Engineering, Curtin University, Bentley, WA...
Understanding the reactive dissolution of carbonate rocks in CO2-rich brine environments is critical for optimizing carbon capture and storage (CCS). This study integrates flow experiments with high-resolution micro-CT imaging and pore-scale simulation to analyze the interplay between physical and chemical heterogeneity during reactive transport. By examining two carbonate samples comprised...
Fractures in rock masses promote discrete, preferential flow paths rather than the diffuse wetting of porous media. This channeling behavior reduces fracture-matrix contact, weakens capillary imbibition, and suppresses the coupling between the two domains, thereby challenging the applicability of traditional retention models such as van Genuchten and Brooks-Corey at larger scales. Here, we...
