Mechanical and Hydraulic Behaviors in a Single Fracture with Asperities Crushed during Shear
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 18, Issue 11
Abstract
Understanding the mechanical and hydraulic behaviors in a single fracture is important for underground rock engineering. In this study, coupled shear-flow tests were performed on five single fractures with regular dentate asperities, under different constant normal stresses and high inlet hydraulic pressures, to investigate the change of stress, displacement, and flow rate during shear. A new radial flow cubic law was established to estimate the hydraulic behavior, and a two-dimensional (2D) finite-element model, obtained by solving the Navier-Stokes equations, was used to analyze the discrepancy of the values between the new cubic law and experiments. Infilling materials had a strong influence in both mechanical and hydraulic behaviors. The discrepancy and em:eh ratio were influenced by recirculation zones, infilling materials, roughness, contact areas, and inertia force. The nonlinearity of fluid flow caused by inertia force had remarkable influence on hydraulic behavior with high hydraulic pressure. Increasing hydraulic pressure decreased hydraulic conductivity, the em:eh ratio, and discrepancy during the whole shear process.
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Acknowledgments
This paper received financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi province (Program 2017JZ013) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 51679197, 51409206, and 51409208).
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 18 • Issue 11 • November 2018
Copyright
© 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 25, 2017
Accepted: Apr 30, 2018
Published online: Aug 31, 2018
Published in print: Nov 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jan 31, 2019
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