Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory TRUE Block Scale continuation project: Retention processes discrimination for various assumptions of fracture heterogeneity

Antti Poteri

    Research output: Book/ReportReport

    Abstract

    This study examined the effects of the different kinds of heterogeneities on the retention of solutes in tracer experiments. The approach was to include variations in both material and the flow field properties. It was shown that in the longitudinal and lateral types of heterogeneities the retention does not depend on the spatial distribution of the different properties, but only on the effective “quantity” of the different properties. However, a possible correlation between the flow field and a given material property will affect the effective retention properties.

    Non-sorbing tracers with different pore diffusivities could be especially useful for determining the heterogeneities. Such kind of tracers could be for example nano-particles. Non-sorbing tracers can give information especially on the diffusion-controlled retention and possible heterogeneity that is associated with a limited capacity of the available immobile pore spaces. Different pumping rates can also help to reveal the heterogeneity that is associated with a limited capacity of the immobile pore space. Diffusion-controlled retention is very sensitive to the flow rate, so decreasing the flow rate will retard the tracer discharge very clearly. If the immobile pore space gets saturated this should manifest itself as a deviation from the power-law tailing of the tracer breakthrough curve as the flow rates are decreased.
    Original languageEnglish
    Place of PublicationStockholm
    Number of pages23
    Publication statusPublished - 2003
    MoE publication typeD4 Published development or research report or study

    Publication series

    SeriesInternational Progress Report
    NumberIPR-03-42

    Keywords

    • capacity
    • diffusion
    • effective property
    • flow field
    • immobile
    • material

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