The Development of Wormholes in Laboratory-Scale Fractures: Perspectives From Three-Dimensional Simulations

Vitaliy Starchenko; Anthony J.C. Ladd

doi:10.1029/2018WR022948

The Development of Wormholes in Laboratory-Scale Fractures: Perspectives From Three-Dimensional Simulations

Vitaliy Starchenko, Anthony J.C. Ladd

Geochemistry & Interfacial Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

50 Scopus citations

Abstract

We investigate the development of wormholes in laboratory-scale fractures using three-dimensional numerical simulations. Well-controlled initial conditions, involving a small perturbation near the inlet of an otherwise flat fracture aperture field, were used to make a systematic study of the effects of flow rate and reaction rate on the aperture evolution. We find at least two characteristic wormhole shapes, which can be grouped within a phase diagram in the space of Péclet and Damköhler numbers. We investigate how this phase diagram depends on fracture geometry, specifically the length (L) and width (W) in comparison to the initial aperture (h₀). This information is used to determine an effective Damköhler number that leads to a Péclet and length-independent phase boundary between wormholes and uniform dissolution. We relate these observations to experimental studies of wormhole formation in dissolving fractures.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	7946-7959
Number of pages	14
Journal	Water Resources Research
Volume	54
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022948
State	Published - Oct 2018

Funding

The data in this paper were generated with the OpenFOAM ® toolkit (v1706), http://www.openfoam.com/. Figures were prepared using Paraview visualization software, http://www.paraview.org/. Source codes and a sampling of the input files used to produce the data shown in this paper are provided as Supplementary Information. Additional output data is available on request.This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division. A.J.C. Ladd was funded under Award Number DE-FG02-98ER14853.

Funders	Funder number
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences
Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division	DE-FG02-98ER14853

Keywords

fracture dissolution
laboratory-scale fractures
wormholes

Access to Document

10.1029/2018WR022948

Cite this

@article{3b0f8123a0fc4e48bec3c90cd531e9c5,

title = "The Development of Wormholes in Laboratory-Scale Fractures: Perspectives From Three-Dimensional Simulations",

abstract = "We investigate the development of wormholes in laboratory-scale fractures using three-dimensional numerical simulations. Well-controlled initial conditions, involving a small perturbation near the inlet of an otherwise flat fracture aperture field, were used to make a systematic study of the effects of flow rate and reaction rate on the aperture evolution. We find at least two characteristic wormhole shapes, which can be grouped within a phase diagram in the space of P{\'e}clet and Damk{\"o}hler numbers. We investigate how this phase diagram depends on fracture geometry, specifically the length (L) and width (W) in comparison to the initial aperture (h0). This information is used to determine an effective Damk{\"o}hler number that leads to a P{\'e}clet and length-independent phase boundary between wormholes and uniform dissolution. We relate these observations to experimental studies of wormhole formation in dissolving fractures.",

keywords = "fracture dissolution, laboratory-scale fractures, wormholes",

author = "Vitaliy Starchenko and Ladd, {Anthony J.C.}",

year = "2018",

month = oct,

doi = "10.1029/2018WR022948",

language = "English",

volume = "54",

pages = "7946--7959",

journal = "Water Resources Research",

issn = "0043-1397",

publisher = "Wiley Open Access",

number = "10",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Development of Wormholes in Laboratory-Scale Fractures

T2 - Perspectives From Three-Dimensional Simulations

AU - Starchenko, Vitaliy

AU - Ladd, Anthony J.C.

PY - 2018/10

Y1 - 2018/10

N2 - We investigate the development of wormholes in laboratory-scale fractures using three-dimensional numerical simulations. Well-controlled initial conditions, involving a small perturbation near the inlet of an otherwise flat fracture aperture field, were used to make a systematic study of the effects of flow rate and reaction rate on the aperture evolution. We find at least two characteristic wormhole shapes, which can be grouped within a phase diagram in the space of Péclet and Damköhler numbers. We investigate how this phase diagram depends on fracture geometry, specifically the length (L) and width (W) in comparison to the initial aperture (h0). This information is used to determine an effective Damköhler number that leads to a Péclet and length-independent phase boundary between wormholes and uniform dissolution. We relate these observations to experimental studies of wormhole formation in dissolving fractures.

AB - We investigate the development of wormholes in laboratory-scale fractures using three-dimensional numerical simulations. Well-controlled initial conditions, involving a small perturbation near the inlet of an otherwise flat fracture aperture field, were used to make a systematic study of the effects of flow rate and reaction rate on the aperture evolution. We find at least two characteristic wormhole shapes, which can be grouped within a phase diagram in the space of Péclet and Damköhler numbers. We investigate how this phase diagram depends on fracture geometry, specifically the length (L) and width (W) in comparison to the initial aperture (h0). This information is used to determine an effective Damköhler number that leads to a Péclet and length-independent phase boundary between wormholes and uniform dissolution. We relate these observations to experimental studies of wormhole formation in dissolving fractures.

KW - fracture dissolution

KW - laboratory-scale fractures

KW - wormholes

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85055265118&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1029/2018WR022948

DO - 10.1029/2018WR022948

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85055265118

SN - 0043-1397

VL - 54

SP - 7946

EP - 7959

JO - Water Resources Research

JF - Water Resources Research

IS - 10

ER -

The Development of Wormholes in Laboratory-Scale Fractures: Perspectives From Three-Dimensional Simulations

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this