Parameters affecting maximum fluid transport in large aperture fractures |
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| Authors: | Maria Ines Dragila Noam Weisbrod |
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| Institution: | a Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Oregon State University, 3017 ALS, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA;b Department of Environmental Hydrology & Microbiology, Institute for Water Sciences and Technologies, Desert Research Institutes, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sde-Boqer Campus 84990, Israel |
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| Abstract: | We present results of laboratory experiments to study the behavior of liquids moving in unsaturated wide-aperture fractures. A 5-mm-thick glass plate cut with a 1.7-mm aperture was used as a fractured rock analog to study behavior of film and capillary droplet flow modes. Flow rates ranged between 0.6 and 6.0 ml/min. Variability in the ambient barometric pressure, resulting from weather conditions, seemed to play a role in the natural selection of flow mode. For droplet mode, constant input conditions resulted in highly variable transport properties within the fracture. The advancing meniscus exhibited a dynamic contact angle that was a function of the droplet speed and much larger than the static contact angle. Flow rate was reduced due to the larger contact angle. Analytical expressions for droplet velocity and flow capacity are presented as a function of the dynamic rather than the static contact angle. |
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| Keywords: | Fractured rock Unsaturated Vadose zone Contact angle Fracture intersection Film flow Capillary flow Fluid transport Fracture flow |
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