Three-dimensional analysis of spreading and mixing of miscible compound in heterogeneous variable-aperture fracture

Abstract

As mass transport mechanisms, the spreading and mixing (dilution) processes of miscible contaminated compounds are fundamental to understanding reactive transport behaviors and transverse dispersion. In this study, the spreading and dilution processes of a miscible contaminated compound in a three-dimensional self-affine rough fracture were simulated with the coupled lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). Moment analysis and the Shannon entropy (dilution index) were employed to analyze the spreading and mixing processes, respectively. The corresponding results showed that the spreading process was anisotropic due to the heterogeneous aperture distribution. A compound was transported faster in a large aperture region than in a small aperture region due to the occurrence of preferential flow. Both the spreading and mixing processes were highly dependent on the fluid flow velocity and molecular diffusion. The calculated results of the dilution index showed that increasing the fluid flow velocity and molecular diffusion coefficient led to a higher increasing rate of the dilution index.

Keywords

• Mixing
• Spreading
• Solute transport
• Three-dimensional fracture
• Self-affinity
• Hurst exponent