A PARAMETRIC STUDY ON FLOW OF GROUNDWATER IN FRACTUREDPOROUS MEDIA: 3D SIMULATION

1 1

YUDAN J, 2RANJITH PG, 3VERMA AK, 4CHOI SK, and 2HAQUE A

School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing 2 Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
3

Institute of Technology, India

CSIRO Petroleum division, Clayton, Australia

(e-mail of corresponding author: Ranjith.pg@eng.monash.edu.au)

ABSTRACT: Coupled hydro-mechanical numerical analysis is carried out using the finite difference code FLAC-3D to investigate the effects of boundary conditions on groundwater flow through a fractured porous rock mass, toward a cavity. In the analysis, fluid flow is modelled using a porous flow approach. The effects of the distribution of insitu horizontal to vertical stresses in the rock mass, hydraulic boundary conditions, and the scale of boundary blocks on total water flow toward a model cavity are investigated. The findings of this study show that the induced stress field has a significant influence on flow-deformation characteristics, depending on the orientations and interconnectivity of the joints. Beyond an insitu horizontal to vertical stress ratio of 1.0, the change of joint flow rate is marginal for the trialled models. Moreover, the study suggests that the most appropriate block size to be used for flow calculation in a fractured rock mass is 10-12 times the maximum dimension of the excavation. Keywords: Groundwater, Fractured Rock, Underground Cavity

1. Introduction Numerical studies of fluid flow through porous media have numerous geophysical and geotechnical applications and are necessary for the development and understanding of comprehensive flow models in rock, particularly for the purpose of the analysis of fluid flow around underground excavations. Groundwater is common in the mining environment and to ensure optimum working conditions its effects must be taken into consideration. With the recent rapid expansion of the mining industry, problems arising from the presence of water in mined rock have become particularly pertinent. To meet the demands of the mining industry, numerical techniques for the analysis of groundwater problems have attracted considerable attention from a number of researchers (i.e., Englma et al, 1983; Long and Witherspoon, 1985). However, due to requirements for more faithful approximations to physical behaviour, numerical methods for the accurate prediction of fluid flow behaviour in porous media are still developing. There are two approaches to simulate the hydro-mechanical behaviour of a jointed rock mass: one models the rock mass as an equivalent continuum, while the other employs a discrete fracture network for fluid transfer. Millard et al. (1995) and Baca et al (1984) provide a detailed description of the two methods, having applied both the discrete and continuum approaches to model the same rock mass. This paper discusses numerical modelling of groundwater flow around and into a tunnel in a fractured porous medium, carried out using the commercial finite difference code FLAC-3D

(Itasca, 1996). A FISH, in built in FLAC, function was written and used for the purpose of estimation of the total volume of water ingress to the tunnel. The results of the numerical modelling are systematically analysed to investigate the effects of the distribution of insitu stresses between horizontal and vertical components, the influence of differing hydraulic boundary conditions and the effects of the scale of boundary blocks on the efficiency of the numerical model. 2. Coupled Fluid Flow Processes within Jointed Rock Media A typical rock mass consists of intact rock containing embedded planar discontinuities (eg. faults, joints, lithological contacts). Flow modelling in intact rock can be relatively straightforward, however, the presence of randomly oriented existing discontinuities as well as the emergence of new joints by the propagation of existing discontinuities due to disturbance of the rock mass (e.g. unloading during excavation) can make flow modelling in jointed rock a rather complex process. The presence of interconnected fractures provides a preferred pathway for fluid flow through porous media and thus consideration of the effect of fracture proves to be a fundamental aspect of fluid flow modelling. 2.1 Fluid flow laws If laminar and steady fluid flow through a single fracture with aperture distribution e(x, y) (where x and y are points on the fracture surface) is assumed and flow is considered governed by parallel plate flow, the flow rate (q) will be proportional to e(x, y)3. In the analysis of fluid flow through porous media surrounding an excavation, consideration must be given to the influence of the process of excavation on the previously undisturbed local stress field and the effect of such stress field modifications on local fracture aperture distributions e(x, y). The following simplified approach, applicable for small normal stresses, can be used to calculate the changed values of aperture distribution e1(x, y):

e1 ( x, y ) = e( x, y ) e

(1)

where, e = displacement of joint caused by the change in effective stress. Based on the above, the equation for coupled hydro-mechanical flow (under laminar-smooth conditions) can be written as follows:

q = k e1 ( x, y )
where,

dp dx

(2)

dp = pressure gradient; k = joint permeability factor dx

Incremental determination of the effect of coupled deformation-diffusion processes in FLAC provides a numerical representation for the linear quasi-static Biot theory. The differential equations that govern FLACs numerical approach are provided below. Fluid flow through porous media is described by Darcys law:
a qi = k ij

(P g k x k ) x j

(3)

where, qi = specific discharge vector; k ij = apparent mobility coefficient, a function of the saturations s, P = pressure, g = acceleration due to gravity. The fluid mass balance relationship is:

q = i + q t xi

(4)

where, . = variation of fluid content (variation of fluid volume per unit volume of porous material); qv = volumetric fluid source intensity. The balance of momentum has the form:

ij x j

+ g i =

& du i dt

(5)

where, = (1 n)s + nw = bulk density, and s and w = densities of the solid and fluid phase, respectively. Note that (1 n) s corresponds to the dry density of the matrix, d (i.e., = d + nw). 3. Numerical Modeling Coupled hydro-mechanical analysis was carried out for a 6m diameter circular tunnel, located at the centre of a boundary block (Fig. 1) using FLAC-3D (Itasca, 1996-version 2.1). The top of the boundary block was designed to coincide with the ground water table, assumed at 10m depth below the ground surface. Analysis was carried out for a porous flow model in which fluid flow is isotropic (Biot's theory) and a Ubiquitous Joint Model coupled with the fluid flow model. At this stage the importance of the capability of the model to perform coupled hydromechanical analysis should be emphasised, as the dominance of fracture conductivity (over intact rock conductivity) suggests a strong dependence between joint water pressures, and thus fluid flow, and fracture deformation under changing insitu stress conditions.

Figure 1: Model Tunnel in FLAC 3D

3.1 Initial boundary conditions In order to bring the model to equilibrium under initial field conditions, insitu stresses and fluid boundary conditions were assumed, with values defined by gravity under isotropic conditions. Two different cases for the hydraulic boundary conditions were considered for the joint model, as described below. Case 1: a model where constant water pressures act along the upper and lower boundary surfaces, with linearly varying fluid pressures along the left and right vertical surfaces. Case 2: an isotropic fluid flow model. 3.2 The modeling procedure The model uses a 30m length of tunnel, the floor width of which was found based on a standard number of block sizes. Overall, the model contains approximately 8,000 zones, with 10 zones located along the axis of the tunnel (Fig. 1). The permeability, porosity and Biot coefficient for the model were taken as 1.0x 10-10m/sec, 0.5 and 1.0, respectively.

Table 1. Material properties for the modelled rock mass and water
Material Rock Matrix Parameter Block modulus Block shear modulus Density Cohesion Friction angle Rock Fractures (Ubiquitous Joint Model) Joint dip Joint cohesion Joint friction angle Joint dilation Joint tension N/m2 Units N/m2 N/m2 kg/m3 N/m2 deg. deg N/m2 Deg. Rock matrix/Joint 4.39 x1010 3.02 x 1010 2500 5.51 x 107 51 45 5.51 x 107 48 0.0 1000

4. Results And Discussion 4.1 Effects Of The Insitu Horizontal To Vertical Stress Ratio On Flow To study the effect of the insitu horizontal to vertical stress ratio on the total flow through a fractured rock mass toward a cavity, 3D finite difference modelling of groundwater flow toward a model tunnel in a fractured rock mass was carried out for a range of boundary block sizes (25x25m to 100x100m), employing Case 1 boundary conditions. From Fig. 2, an increase in the horizontal to vertical stress ratio causes a decrease in the total groundwater flow rate toward the model tunnel. However, with increasing insitu horizontal to vertical stress ratios, a decrease in the model flow rate was observed to occur at a decreasing rate, suggesting that for increasing insitu stress ratios flow will approach a certain value. Beyond an insitu stress ratio of about 1.0, changes in the total flow rate for an increasing insitu stress ratio are considered to be relatively small.

Fig. 2.Total flow rate toward the tunnel for differint flow rates and boundary block sizes

Fig.3. Water ingress to the cavity with normalised block size

4.2 Effects Of Fluid Boundary Conditions And Boundary Block Sizes On Flow Modelling was also carried out to investigate the effect of boundary block size and boundary conditions on the model results for the total flow toward the model cavity. For each trialled value for the horizontal to vertical insitu stress ratio, models using Case 1 boundary conditions showed small decrease in the calculated water ingress to the tunnel with increasing boundary block sizes than models using Case 2 boundary conditions (Fig. 3). Furthermore, results of the modelling suggest that with increasing normalised block size (boundary block area/excavation area) water ingress to the cavity approaches a constant value. Thus it is realised that, to obtain meaningful result for finite difference modelling of groundwater flow through a fractured medium toward a cavity, normalised block sizes must be sufficiently small. A boundary block size of 10-12 times the maximum dimension of the excavation is recommended for the modeling. 5. Conclusion For the two different flow scenarios (flow through discrete fractures and flow through an equivalent continuum) modelled with FLAC-3D, water inflow at the tunnel became almost constant: with increasing insitu horizontal to vertical stress ratios, and with increasing normalised block size. The results showed that changes in joint flow rates become relatively small with changes in the stress distribution when the ratio of the horizontal to vertical stress distribution exceeds 1.0. Furthermore, the most appropriate block size to be used for flow calculation in a fractured rock mass is 10-12 times that of the maximum dimension of the excavation, as for an increase in the normalised block size above this limit the volume of water ingress becomes constant. 6. Reference Baca, R.G., Arnett, R.C. & Langford, D.W. (1984). Modelling fluid flow in fractured-porous rock masses by finite element techniques, Int. J. Num. Meth. Fluids, Vol. 4, 337348. Englman, R., Gur, Y. & Jaeger, Z. (1983). Fluid flow through a crack network in rocks, J. Appl. Mech., Vol. 50, 707711. Itasca (1996). FLAC3D, Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua in Three Dimensions, Ver. 2.14,. Manual , Itasca Consulting Group, Inc. Long, J.C.S. and Witherspoon, P.A. (1985). The relationship of degree of interconnection to permeability of fracture networks. Journal of Geophysics Research, Vol. 90 (B4), 30873097. Millard A, Durin M, Stietel A, Thoraval A, Vuillod E, Baroudi H, Plas F, Bougnoux A, Vouille G, Kobayashi A et al (1995). Discrete and continuum approaches to simulate the thermohydro-mechanical couplings in a large, fractured rock mass, Int. J. of Rock Mechanics and Mining Science & Geomechanics Abstracts, Volume 32 (5), 409-434.