A Study of hydraulic properties in a single fracture with in-plane heterogeneity; An Evaluation using optical measurements of a transparent replica

Sawada, Atsushi ; Sato, Hisashi

Experimental studies for evaluating fracture were conducted by using transparent replica of a single fracture, in order to obtain data for contributing to the methodology improving how we define representative parameter values used for a parallel plate fracture model. Quantitative aperture distribution and tracer concentration data were obtained by measuring the attenuation of transmitted light through the fracture, in high spatial resolution. The representative aperture values evaluated from the multiple measurement methods, such as arithmetic mean of aperture distribution, transport aperture, average aperture evaluated from fracture void volume measurement, converged to a unique value, which indicates the accuracy of this experimental study. The aperture data was employed for studying the validity of numerical simulation under the assumption of local cubic law and showed that the calculated flow rate through the fracture is 10% - 100% larger than hydraulic test results.