• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.70-78
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• 2024

This study presents the fracture permeability measurements considering the proppant size, distribution and overburden pressure to analyze the effect of the proppant distribution on the fracture permeability in shale gas reservoirs. From the results, the fracture permeability increased with larger proppant size and higher proppant distribution, but the permeability decreased with higher overburden pressure. For the 40/70 mesh proppant, the average fracture permeability reduction with decreasing proppant distribution ranged from 32 to 57%, and those of with decreasing overburden pressure ranged from 29 to 78%, confirming that decreasing proppant distribution had a greater effect on fracture permeability reduction. Based on the experimental data, the fracture propagation regions were determined and the fracture permeability decreased with deeper propagation regions. Using these results, the fracture permeability was determined according to the fracture propagation region and the decrease in fracture permeability with overburden pressure in each region was obtained. The decreasing tendency of fracture permeability in the fracture propagation zone with overburden pressure can be applied to the production evaluation of shale gas reservoirs with developed fracture zones.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2000.09a
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• pp.129-137
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• 2000

This paper presents groundwater flow characteristics in discontinuous rock mass using fracture network program(NAPSAC) by statistical approach. Equivalent permeability coefficients are estimated from borehole data around Mabuk test tunnel site and fracture map on the arch of the tunnel. The reliability of fracture network model is obtained from determination of input data for statistical fracture network analysis from the real data(data of fracture network, data of hydraulic tests). The variation of permeability and mean anisotropic permeability coefficients are calculated from the realized model by increasing the size. As a result of analysis, a strong anisotropy of permeability is observed according to the direction of the fracture sets around the test tunnel.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.378-386
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• 2000

This paper presents groundwater flow characteristics in discontinuous rock mass using fracture network program(NAPSAC) by statistical approach. Equivalent permeability coefficients are estimated from borehole data around Mabuk test tunnel site and fracture map on the arch of the tunnel. The reliability of fracture network model is obtained from determination of input data for statistical fracture network analysis from the real data(data of fracture network, data of hydraulic tests). The variation of permeability and mean anisotropic permeability coefficients are calculated from the realized model by increasing the size. As a result of analysis, a strong anisotropy of permeability is observed according to the direction of the fracture sets around the test tunnel.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.73-76
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• 2001

We have simulated the effect of fracture characteristics on reduction of effective permeability of the fractured rocks due to in-situ bacteria growth. A nutrient is injected continuously for growth of in-situ bacteria. We used a power law for fracture length distribution and a fBm for fracture aperture spatial distribution. The results show that in-situ bacteria growth reduces the Permeability hyperbolically, but the porosity of backbone fracture does not change significantly. It shows that reduction of the permeability proceeds at faster speed for smaller value of length exponent(a) and for larger value of Hurst exponent(H). The fracture length distribution has stronger effect on speed of reduction than the aperture spatial distribution. The time needed to reduce permeability is inversely proportional to the hydraulic gradient.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.503-515
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• 2022

The permeability coefficient is an essential parameter for the study of seepage flow in fractured rock mass. This paper discusses the feasibility and application value of using readily available RQD (rock quality index) data to estimate mine water inflow and grouting quantity. Firstly, the influence of different fracture frequencies on permeability in a unit area was explored by combining numerical simulation and experiment, and the relationship between fracture frequencies and pressure and flow velocity at the monitoring point in fractured rock mass was obtained. Then, the stochastic function generation program was used to establish the flow analysis model in fractured rock mass to explore the relationship between flow velocity, pressure and analyze the universal law between fracture frequency and permeability. The concepts of fracture width and connectivity are introduced to modify the permeability calculation formula and grouting formula. Finally, based on the on-site grouting water control example, the rock mass quality index is used to estimate the mine water inflow and the grouting quantity. The results show that it is feasible to estimate the fracture frequency and then calculate the permeability coefficient by RQD. The relationship between fracture frequency and RQD is in accordance with exponential function, and the relationship between structure surface frequency and permeability is also in accordance with exponential function. The calculation results are in good agreement with the field monitoring results, which verifies the rationality of the calculation method. The relationship between the rock mass RQD index and the rock mass permeability established in this paper can be used to invert the mechanical parameters of the rock mass or to judge the permeability and safety of the rock mass by using the mechanical parameters of the rock mass, which is of great significance to the prediction of mine water inflow and the safety evaluation of water inrush disaster management.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.79-86
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• 2004

Hydraulic conductivity along rock fracture is mainly dependent on fracture geometries such as orientation, aperture, roughness and connectivity. Therefore, it needs to consider fracture geometries sufficiently on a fracture model for a numerical analysis to calculate permeability coefficient in a fracture. This study performed new type of numerical analysis using a homogenization analysis method to calculate permeability coefficient accurately along single fractures with several fracture models that were considered fracture geometries as much as possible. First of all, fracture roughness and aperture variation due to normal stress applied on a fracture were directly measured under a confocal laser scaning microscope (CLSM). The acquired geometric data were used as input data to construct fracture models for the homogenization analysis (HA). Using the constructed fracture models, the homogenization analysis method can compute permeability coefficient with consideration of material properties both in microscale and in macroscale. The HA is a new type of perturbation theory developed to characterize the behavior of a micro inhomogeneous material with a periodic microstructure. It calculates micro scale permeability coefficient at homogeneous microscale, and then, computes a homogenized permeability coefficient (C-permeability coefficient) at macro scale. Therefore, it is possible to analyze accurate characteristics of permeability reflected with local effect of facture geometry. Several computations of the HA were conducted to prove validity of the HA results compared with the empirical equations of permeability in the previous studies using the constructed 2-D fracture models. The model can be classified into a parallel plate model that has fracture roughness and identical aperture along a fracture. According to the computation results, the conventional C-permeability coefficients have values in the range of the same order or difference of one order from the permeability coefficients calculated by an empirical equation. It means that the HA result is valid to calculate permeability coefficient along a fracture. However, it should be noted that C-permeability coefficient is more accurate result than the preexisting equations of permeability calculation, because the HA considers permeability characteristics of locally inhomogeneous fracture geometries and material properties both in microscale and macroscale.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.43-52
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• 2012

To compute a permeability coefficient along a rough fracture that takes into account the fracture geometry, this study performed detailed measurements of fracture roughness using a confocal laser scanning microscope, a quantitative analysis of roughness using a spectral analysis, and a homogenization analysis to calculate the permeability coefficient on the microand macro-scale. The homogenization analysis is a type of perturbation theory that characterizes the behavior of microscopically inhomogeneous material with a periodic boundary condition in the microstructure. Therefore, it is possible to analyze accurate permeability characteristics that are represented by the local effect of the facture geometry. The Cpermeability coefficients that are calculated using the homogenization analysis for each rough fracture model exhibit an irregular distribution and do not follow the relationship of the cubic law. This distribution suggests that the permeability characteristics strongly depend on the geometric conditions of the fractures, such as the roughness and the aperture variation. The homogenization analysis may allow us to produce more accurate results than are possible with the preexisting equations for calculating permeability.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.47-60
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• 2004

The permeability coefficients were calculated by the homogenization analysis method with sufficient consideration of fracture geometry dependent on aperture change. According to the results of aperture measurements using a confocal laser scanning microscope, apertures on each measuring point display different magnitudes, indicating that fracture walls can not be assumed as parallel feature. After construction of fracture model based on the aperture values measured on each pressure level, the homogenization analysis was conducted to compute permeability coefficients. The calculated permeability coefficients distribute in the ranges of $10^{-1}~10^{-3}cm/sec$. Most of the specimens show decreasing permeability coefficients with the increase of the applied pressure. However, the decreasing rates of permeability coefficients do not show a constant trend on each pressure level. This phenomenon is well matched to the observation results of Chae et al. (2003). It proves that aperture change strongly influences on permeability characteristics. Three sections of each specimen have all different values of permeability coefficient. It suggests that the variation of permeability coefficient depends sensitively on aperture magnitudes and characteristics of fracture geometry. It is very important to consider accurate fracture geometries for analysis of permeability characteristics in rock fractures bearing different aperture distribution. Therefore, it needs to consider sufficiently the fracture geometries for calculating the permeability coefficients of fractures.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.179-187
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• 2024

In this paper, a unified time-dependent constitutive model of Darcy flow and non-Darcy flow is proposed. The influencing factors of flow velocity are discussed, which demonstrates that permeability coefficient is the most significant factor. Based on this, the dynamic evolution characteristics of water inrush during tunneling through fault fracture zone is analyzed under the constant permeability coefficient condition (CPCC). It indicates that the curves of flow velocity and hydrostatic pressure can be divided into typical three stages: approximate high-velocity zone inside the fault fracture zone, velocity-rising zone near the tunnel excavation face and attenuation-low velocity zone in the tunnel. Furthermore, given the variation of permeability coefficient of the fault fracture zone with depth and time, the dynamic evolution of water flow in the fault fracture zone under the variable permeability coefficient condition (VPCC) is also studied. The results show that the time-related factor (α) affects the dynamic evolution distribution of flow velocity with time, the depth-related factor (A) is the key factor to the dynamic evolution of hydrostatic pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.159-163
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• 2004

This study was conducted to calculate the permeability coefficient in a single fracture while taking the true fracture geometry into consideration. The fracture geometry was measured using the confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM). The CLSM geometry data were used to reconstruct a fracture model for numerical analysis using a homogenization analysis (HA) method. The HA is a new type of perturbation theory developed to characterize the behavior of a micro-inhomogeneous material that involves periodic microstructures. The HA permeability was calculated based on the local geometry and local material properties (water viscosity in this case). The results show that the permeability coefficients do not follow the theoretical relationship of the cubic law.