Effects of Slip Length and Inertia on the Permeability of Fracture with Slippery Boundary Condition

Benhua Liu, Hao Zhan, Yiran Liu, Huan Qi, Linxian Huang, Zhengrun Wei and Zhizheng Liu
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Benhua Liu: School of Water Conservancy and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
Hao Zhan: School of Water Conservancy and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
Yiran Liu: School of Water Resources and Environment, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Huan Qi: 801 Institute of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology, Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology & Mineral Resources, Jinan 250014, China
Linxian Huang: School of Water Conservancy and Environment, University of Jinan, Jinan 250022, China
Zhengrun Wei: Shandong Institute of Geological Survey, Jinan 250013, China
Zhizheng Liu: Shandong Institute of Geological Survey, Jinan 250013, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-9

Abstract: Although the slippery boundary condition (BC) has been validated to enhance fracture permeability ( k ), the coupling effects of heterogeneous slippery BC and inertia on k remain less understood. We used computational fluid dynamics to investigate the competing roles of slippery BC and inertial forces in controlling k evolution with increasing pressure gradient by designing six cases with different slip length scenarios for a two-dimensional natural fracture. Our results suggest that pronounced inertial effects were directly related to and demonstrated by the growth of recirculation zone (RZ); this caused flow regimes transitioning from Darcy to non-Darcy and significantly reduced k , with an identical tailing slope for six cases, regardless of the variability in slip lengths. Moreover, the slippery BC dominantly determine the magnitude of k with orders depending on the slip length. Lastly, our study reveals that the specific k evolution path for the case with a varying slip length was significantly different from other cases with a homogeneous one, thus encouraging more efforts in determining the slip length for natural fractures via experiments.

Keywords: slip length; inertial force; fracture; nonlinear flow; permeability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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