Influence of Shear Displacement on Fluid Flow and Solute Transport in a 3D Rough Fracture

Abstract Fractured rocks in the subsurface are ubiquitous, and dynamics of mass transfer fractured plays an important role understanding problem engineering geology environmental geology. In this study, influence shear displacement on fluid flow solute transport a 3D rough fracture was investigated. A self-affine generated using modified successive random addition (SRA) technology, three sheared fractures with different displacements were constructed based mechanistic model. direct numerical model Navier-Stokes equation advection-diffusion developed to solve transport. The results showed that had significant not only but also global measure spatial variability velocity heterogeneity became weaker decreasing displacement. All measured BTCs deviated from Gaussian profile exhibited typical anomalous behaviors, such as long tail early arrival. Although best-fitted advection-dispersion (ADE) mobile-immobile (MIM) generally consistent those BTCs, MIM more capable than ADE for characterizing shear-induced behavior BTCs. It found exchange process between immobile mobile domains enhanced while fraction advection-dominant domain decreased increased. Furthermore, deviation Taylor dispersion coefficient fitted by confirmed due