Application of a Geocentrifuge and Sterolithographically Fabricated Apertures to Investigations of Multiphase Flow in Complex Fracture Apertures

A geotechnical centrifuge was used to investigate unsaturated multiphase fluid flow in synthetic fracture apertures under a variety of flow conditions. The geocentrifuge subjected the fluids to centrifugal forces allowing the Bond number to be systematically changed without adjusting the fracture aperture or the fluids. The fracture models were based on the concept that surfaces generated by the fracture of brittle geomaterials have a self-affine fractal geometry. The synthetic fracture surfaces were fabricated from a transparent epoxy photopolymer using sterolithography, and fluid flow through the transparent fracture models was monitored by an optical image acquisition system. Aperture widths were chosen to be representative of the wide range of geological fractures in the vesicular basalt that lies beneath the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Transitions between different flow regimes were observed as the acceleration was changed under constant flow conditions. The experiments showed the transition between straight and meandering rivulets in smooth walled apertures (aperture width= 0.508 mm), the dependence of the rivulet width on acceleration in rough walled fracture apertures (average aperture width = 0.25 mm), unstable meandering flow in rough walled apertures at high acceleration (20 g) and the narrowing of the wetted region with increasing acceleration during the penetration of water into an aperture filled with wetted particles (0.875 mm diameter glass spheres).