Critically Stressed Fractures as Conduits: Mechanically-Chemically-Mediated Anisotropy of the Effective Permeability of Fractured Rock

Abstract:

It has long been suggested that fractures that are critically oriented with respect to the in situ stress field are the most likely to be hydraulically conductive. This observation is revisited from the point of view of chemically mediated compaction processes, using numerical multi-physics, multi-scale simulations. Fracture contact is computed explicitly for discrete fracture networks, to find local displacements and contact tractions, which govern the initial permeability of the fractures. Subsequent flow simulations compute the full permeability tensor of the network. Local normal tractions then inform a series of transient reactive-transport, elastic-contact simulations at the grain scale that model the compaction of the fracture void space due to pressure-solution and free-face precipitation, assuming the pore-fluid in equilibrium concentration. The ensuing change of fracture transmissivity feeds back to the discrete fracture network model, wherein changes in the permeability tensor are evaluated. The eigenvectors of the initial permeability tensor reflect the higher permeability of fractures having shear/normal stress ratios near 0.6, which are characterized by relatively high permeability due to their combination of shear displacement and normal compression. The resulting preferred flow direction of the network becomes more pronounced over time as fractures that are subject to larger normal stresses experience stronger compaction, for two reasons. Firstly, larger normal traction over the surfaces provides a stronger drive for pressure solution at the contacting asperities. Secondly, these fractures are subject to smaller shear displacement. Their void space has less pronounced channels and is more sensitive to hydraulic sealing due to contact-zone percolation during the compaction process. It is concluded that mechanically-chemically mediated closure processes contribute to critically stressed fractures being likely hydraulic conduits.