Abstract
While several studies have linked network and in-fracture scale properties to conservative transport behavior in subsurface fractured media, studies on reactive transport cases remain relatively underdeveloped. In this study, we explore the behavior of an irreversible kinetic reaction during the interaction of two solute plumes, one consisting of species A and the other species B. When the plumes converge, these species react kinetically to form a new species C via \(A+B\xrightarrow {k} C\). This reactive system is studied using a three-dimensional discrete fracture network (DFN) model coupled with reactive Lagrangian particle tracking. We find that the interplay of network topology and chemical properties of the reactive solutes controls reactive transport processes. The network topology drives species A and B together, and the chemical properties dictate whether and how quickly a reaction occurs. Results demonstrate that reactions are most likely to occur in high-velocity fractures that make up the network backbone. The interplay between species’ chemical properties and transport is characterized by a non-dimensional Damköhler (Da) number. We show that the spatial distribution of reactions is sensitive to Da, which subsequently influences late-time tailing behavior in outlet breakthrough time distributions. The results of this study provide initial insights into how an irreversible reaction occurs during transport in a fracture network, using a methodology that can be applied to study reactive transport in a wide range of fractured media environments and contexts.
Article Highlights
-
Discrete Fracture Network models are used to study reactive transport behavior.
-
We consider the irreversible chemical reaction A + B → C
-
Reactions primarily occur in the network backbone and reaction locations are sensitive to chemical properties.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aldrich, G., Hyman, J.D., Karra, S., Gable, C.W., Makedonska, N., Viswanathan, H., Hamann, B.: Analysis and visualization of discrete fracture networks using a flow topology graph. IEEE Trans. Visual Comput. Graphics 23(8), 1896–1909 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2016.2582174
Anna, Pd., Jimenez-Martinez, J., Tabuteau, H., Turuban, R., Le Borgne, T., Derrien, M., Méheust, Y.: Mixing and reaction kinetics in porous media: an experimental pore scale quantification. Environ. Sci. Technol. 48(1), 508–516 (2014)
Baghbanan, A., Jing, L.: Hydraulic properties of fractured rock masses with correlated fracture length and aperture. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. 44(5), 704–719 (2007)
Barbier, E.: Geothermal energy technology and current status: an overview. Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 6(1–2), 3–65 (2002)
Benson, D.A., Aquino, T., Bolster, D., Engdahl, N., Henri, C.V., Fernandez-Garcia, D.: A comparison of eulerian and lagrangian transport and non-linear reaction algorithms. Adv. Water Resour. 99, 15–37 (2017)
Benson, D.A., Meerschaert, M.M.: Simulation of chemical reaction via particle tracking: Diffusion-limited versus thermodynamic rate-limited regimes. Water Resour. Res. 44, 12 (2008)
Benson, D.A., Pankavich, S., Bolster, D.: On the separate treatment of mixing and spreading by the reactive-particle-tracking algorithm: an example of accurate upscaling of reactive poiseuille flow. Adv. Water Resour. 123, 40–53 (2019)
Berre, I., Doster, F., Keilegavlen, E.: Flow in fractured porous media: a review of conceptual models and discretization approaches. Transport Porous Med 1, 1–22 (2018)
Bolster, D., Barahona, M., Dentz, M., Fernandez-Garcia, D., Sanchez-Vila, X., Trinchero, P., Tartakovsky, D.M.: Probabilistic risk analysis of groundwater remediation strategies. Water Resourc Res 45(6), 1 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1029/2008WR007551
Bolster, D., de Anna, P., Benson, D.A., Tartakovsky, A.M.: Incomplete mixing and reactions with fractional dispersion. Adv. Water Resour. 37, 86–93 (2012)
Bolster, D., Paster, A., Benson, D.A.: A particle number conserving l agrangian method for mixing-driven reactive transport. Water Resour. Res. 52(2), 1518–1527 (2016)
Bonnet, E., Bour, O., Odling, N.E., Davy, P., Main, I., Cowie, P., Berkowitz, B.: Scaling of fracture systems in geological media. Rev. Geophys. 39(3), 347–383 (2001)
Bouquain, J., Méheust, Y., Bolster, D., Davy, P.: The impact of inertial effects on solute dispersion in a channel with periodically varying aperture. Phys. Fluids 24(8), 083602 (2012)
Bour, O., Davy, P.: Connectivity of random fault networks following a power law fault length distribution. Water Resour. Res. 33(7), 1567–1583 (1997)
Boutt, D.F., Grasselli, G., Fredrich, J.T., Cook, B.K., Williams, J.R.: Trapping zones: The effect of fracture roughness on the directional anisotropy of fluid flow and colloid transport in a single fracture. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, 21 (2006)
Cardenas, M.B., Slottke, D.T., Ketcham, R.A., Sharp, J.M.: Navier-Stokes flow and transport simulations using real fractures shows heavy tailing due to eddies. Geophys. Res. Lett. 34, 14 (2007)
Cvetkovic, V., Painter, S., Outters, N., Selroos, J.: Stochastic simulation of radionuclide migration in discretely fractured rock near the äspö hard rock laboratory. Water Resour. Res. 40, 2 (2004)
Davy, P., Bour, O., De Dreuzy, J.R., Darcel, C.: Flow in multiscale fractal fracture networks. Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ. 261(1), 31–45 (2006)
de Anna, P., Dentz, M., Tartakovsky, A., Le Borgne, T.: The filamentary structure of mixing fronts and its control on reaction kinetics in porous media flows. Geophys. Res. Lett. 41(13), 4586–4593 (2014)
De Barros, F.P., Dentz, M., Koch, J., Nowak, W.: Flow topology and scalar mixing in spatially heterogeneous flow fields. Geophys. Res. Lett. 39, 8 (2012)
de Dreuzy, J., Darcel, C., Davy, P., Bour, O.: Influence of spatial correlation of fracture centers on the permeability of two-dimensional fracture networks following a power law length distribution. Water Resour. Res. 40(1), 1 (2004)
de Dreuzy, J., Davy, P., Bour, O.: Hydraulic properties of two-dimensional random fracture networks following a power law length distribution 2. permeability of networks based on lognormal distribution of apertures. Water Resour. Res. 37(8), 2079–2095 (2001)
de Dreuzy, J., Méheust, Y., Pichot, G.: Influence of fracture scale heterogeneity on the flow properties of three-dimensional discrete fracture networks. J. Geophys. Research-Sol. Ea. 117(B11), 1 (2012)
de Dreuzy, J.R., Carrera, J., Dentz, M., Le Borgne, T.: Time evolution of mixing in heterogeneous porous media. Water Resour. Res. 48, 6 (2012)
Dentz, M., Le Borgne, T., Englert, A., Bijeljic, B.: Mixing, spreading and reaction in heterogeneous media: a brief review. J. Contam. Hydrol. 120, 1–17 (2011)
Detwiler, R.L., Rajaram, H., Glass, R.J.: Solute transport in variable-aperture fractures: an investigation of the relative importance of taylor dispersion and macrodispersion. Water Resour. Res. 36(7), 1611–1625 (2000)
Ding, D., Benson, D.A., Fernàndez-Garcia, D., Henri, C.V., Hyndman, D.W., Phanikumar, M.S., Bolster, D.: Elimination of the reaction rate “scale effect”: Application of the lagrangian reactive particle-tracking method to simulate mixing-limited, field-scale biodegradation at the Schoolcraft (MI, USA) site. Water Resources Research 53(12), 10411–10432 (2017)
Ding, D., Benson, D.A., Paster, A., Bolster, D.: Modeling bimolecular reactions and transport in porous media via particle tracking. Adv. Water Resour. 53, 56–65 (2013)
Engdahl, N.B., Benson, D.A., Bolster, D.: Lagrangian simulation of mixing and reactions in complex geochemical systems. Water Resour. Res. 53(4), 3513–3522 (2017)
Frampton, A., Cvetkovic, V.: Upscaling particle transport in discrete fracture networks: 1. Nonreactive tracers. Water Resour. Res. 43, 10 (2007)
Frampton, A., Hyman, J., Zou, L.: Advective transport in discrete fracture networks with connected and disconnected textures representing internal aperture variability. Water Resources Research. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR024322 (2019)
Ghanbarian, B., Hunt, A.G., Ewing, R.P., Sahimi, M.: Tortuosity in porous media: a critical review. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 77(5), 1461–1477 (2013)
Gillespie, D.T.: Exact stochastic simulation of coupled chemical reactions. J. Phys. Chem. 81(25), 2340–2361 (1977)
Huseby, O., Thovert, J., Adler, P.: Geometry and topology of fracture systems. J. Phys. A Math. Gen. 30(5), 1415 (1997)
Hyman, J., Dentz, M., Hagberg, A., Kang, P.K.: Linking structural and transport properties in three-dimensional fracture networks. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 124(2), 1185–1204 (2019)
Hyman, J.D.: Flow channeling in fracture networks: characterizing the effect of density on preferential flow path formation. Water Resour. Res. (2020)
Hyman, J.D., Aldrich, G., Viswanathan, H., Makedonska, N., Karra, S.: Fracture size and transmissivity correlations: implications for transport simulations in sparse three-dimensional discrete fracture networks following a truncated power law distribution of fracture size. Water Rescour. Research 52(8), 6472–6489 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1002/2016WR018806
Hyman, J.D., Dentz, M., Hagberg, A., Kang, P.: Emergence of stable laws for first passage times in three-dimensional random fracture networks. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123(24), 248501 (2019)
Hyman, J.D., Gable, C.W., Painter, S.L., Makedonska, N.: Conforming Delaunay triangulation of stochastically generated three dimensional discrete fracture networks: A feature rejection algorithm for meshing strategy. SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 36(4), A1871–A1894 (2014)
Hyman, J.D., Hagberg, A., Osthus, D., Srinivasan, S., Viswanathan, H., Srinivasan, G.: Identifying backbones in three-dimensional discrete fracture networks: a bipartite graph-based approach. Multisc. Model. Simul. 16(4), 1948–1968 (2018)
Hyman, J.D., Hagberg, A., Srinivasan, G., Mohd-Yusof, J., Viswanathan, H.: Predictions of first passage times in sparse discrete fracture networks using graph-based reductions. Phys. Rev. E 96(1), 013304 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.96.013304
Hyman, J.D., Jiménez-Martínez, J.: Dispersion and mixing in three-dimensional discrete fracture networks: nonlinear interplay between structural and hydraulic heterogeneity. Water Rescour. Res. 54(5), 3243–3258 (2018)
Hyman, J.D., Jiménez-Martínez, J., Gable, C.W. , Stauffer, P.H., Pawar, R.J.: Characterizing the impact of fractured caprock heterogeneity on supercritical co2 injection. Transp. Porous Med. 1–21 (2019)
Hyman, J.D., Karra, S., Makedonska, N., Gable, C.W., Painter, S.L., Viswanathan, H.S.: dfnWorks: A discrete fracture network framework for modeling subsurface flow and transport. Comput. Geosci. 84, 10–19 (2015)
Hyman, J.D., Painter, S.L., Viswanathan, H., Makedonska, N., Karra, S.: Influence of injection mode on transport properties in kilometer-scale three-dimensional discrete fracture networks. Water Resour. Res. 51(9), 7289–7308 (2015)
Kang, P.K., Brown, S., Juanes, R.: Emergence of anomalous transport in stressed rough fractures. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 454, 46–54 (2016)
Kang, P.K., Dentz, M., Le Borgne, T., Juanes, R.: Anomalous transport on regular fracture networks: impact of conductivity heterogeneity and mixing at fracture intersections. Phys. Rev. E 92(2), 022148 (2015)
Kang, P.K., Dentz, M., Le Borgne, T., Lee, S., Juanes, R.: Anomalous transport in disordered fracture networks: spatial Markov model for dispersion with variable injection modes. Adv. Water Resour. 106, 80–94 (2017)
Kang, P.K., Le Borgne, T., Dentz, M., Bour, O., Juanes, R.: Impact of velocity correlation and distribution on transport in fractured media: field evidence and theoretical model. Water Resour. Res. 51(2), 940–959 (2015)
Kang, P.K., Lei, Q., Dentz, M., Juanes, R.: Stress-induced anomalous transport in natural fracture networks. Water Resour. Res. (2019)
Karra, S., D, O’Malley., Hyman, J., Viswanathan, H., Srinivasan, G.: Modeling flow and transport in fracture networks using graphs. Phys. Rev. E 97(3), 033304 (2018)
Knutson, C., Valocchi, A., Werth, C.: Comparison of continuum and pore-scale models of nutrient biodegradation under transverse mixing conditions. Adv. Water Resour. 30(6–7), 1421–1431 (2007)
Kreft, A., Zuber, A.: On the physical meaning of the dispersion equation and its solutions for different initial and boundary conditions. Chem. Eng. Sci. 33(11), 1471–1480 (1978)
Lichtner, P., Hammond, G. , Lu, C., Karra, S., Bisht, G., Andre, B., Kumar, J.: PFLOTRAN user manual: A massively parallel reactive flow and transport model for describing surface and subsurface processes (Tech. Rep.). (Report No.: LA-UR-15-20403) Los Alamos National Laboratory (2015)
Maillot, J., Davy, P., Le Goc, R., Darcel, C., De Dreuzy, J.R.: Connectivity, permeability, and channeling in randomly distributed and kinematically defined discrete fracture network models. Water Resour. Res. 52(11), 8526–8545 (2016)
Makedonska, N., Hyman, J.D., Karra, S., Painter, S.L., Gable, C.W.W., Viswanathan, H.S.: Evaluating the effect of internal aperture variability on transport in kilometer scale discrete fracture networks. Adv. Water Resour. 94, 486–497 (2016)
Makedonska, N., Painter, S.L., Bui, Q.M., Gable, C.W., Karra, S.: Particle tracking approach for transport in three-dimensional discrete fracture networks. Computat. Geosci. 1:1–15 (2015)
Mourzenko, V., Thovert, J.F., Adler, P.: Percolation of three-dimensional fracture networks with power-law size distribution. Phys. Rev. E 72(3), 036103 (2005)
Pacala, S., Socolow, R.: Stabilization wedges: solving the climate problem for the next 50 years with current technologies. Science 305(5686), 968–972 (2004)
Painter, S.L., Gable, C.W., Kelkar, S.: Pathline tracing on fully unstructured control-volume grids. Computat. Geosci. 16(4), 1125–1134 (2012)
Paster, A., Bolster, D., Benson, D.: Particle tracking and the diffusion-reaction equation. Water Resour. Res. 49(1), 1–6 (2013)
Paster, A., Bolster, D., Benson, D.A.: Connecting the dots: Semi-analytical and random walk numerical solutions of the diffusion-reaction equation with stochastic initial conditions. J. Comput. Phys. 263, 91–112 (2014)
Rolle, M., Le Borgne, T.: Mixing and reactive fronts in the subsurface. Rev. Miner. Geochem. 85(1), 111–142 (2019)
Sanchez-Vila, X., Fernàndez-Garcia, D., Guadagnini, A.: Interpretation of column experiments of transport of solutes undergoing an irreversible bimolecular reaction using a continuum approximation. Water Resour. Res. 46, 12 (2010)
Sherman, T., Engdahl, N.B., Porta, G., Bolster, D.: A review of spatial markov models for predicting pre-asymptotic and anomalous transport in porous and fractured media. J. Contam. Hydrol. 1, 103734 (2020)
Sherman, T., Hyman, J.D., Bolster, D., Makedonska, N., Srinivasan, G.: Characterizing the impact of particle behavior at fracture intersections in three-dimensional discrete fracture networks. Phys. Rev. E 99(1), 013110 (2019)
Sherman, T., Hyman, J.D. , Dentz, M., Bolster, D.: Characterizing the influence of fracture density on network scale transport. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth (2020)
Sherman, T., Janetti, E.B., Guédon, G.R., Porta, G., Bolster, D.: Upscaling transport of a sorbing solute in disordered non periodic porous domains. Adv. Water Resour. 103574 (2020)
Sole-Mari, G., Fernàndez-Garcia, D., Rodríguez-Escales, P., Sanchez-Vila, X.: A kde-based random walk method for modeling reactive transport with complex kinetics in porous media. Water Resour. Res. 53(11), 9019–9039 (2017)
Srinivasan, S., Karra, S., Hyman, J., Viswanathan, H., Srinivasan, G.: Model reduction for fractured porous media: a machine learning approach for identifying main flow pathways. Comput. Geosci. 23(3), 617–629 (2019)
Steefel, C.I., DePaolo, D.J., Lichtner, P.C.: Reactive transport modeling: an essential tool and a new research approach for the earth sciences. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 240(3–4), 539–558 (2005)
Sund, N., Porta, G., Bolster, D., Parashar, R.: A lagrangian transport eulerian reaction spatial (laters) markov model for prediction of effective bimolecular reactive transport. Water Resour. Res. 53(11), 9040–9058 (2017)
Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB.: Data report for the safety assessment SR-site (TR-10-52) (Tech. Rep.), Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (2010)
Sweeney, M.R., Hyman, J.D.: Stress effects on flow and transport in three-dimensional fracture networks. J. Geophys. Res. Sol. Ea. 125, e2020JB019754. (2020) https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JB019754
Valera, M., Guo, Z., Kelly, P., Matz, S., Cantu, V.A., Percus, A.G., Viswanathan, H.S.: Machine learning for graph-based representations of three-dimensional discrete fracture networks. Comput. Geosci. 22(3), 695–710 (2018)
Valocchi, A.J., Bolster, D., Werth, C.J.: Mixing-limited reactions in porous media. Transp. Porous Med. 130(1), 157–182 (2019)
Viswanathan, H.S., Hyman, J., Karra, S., O’Malley, D., Srinivasan, S., Hagberg, A., Srinivasan, G.: Advancing graph-based algorithms for predicting flow and transport in fractured rock. Water Resour. Res. 54(9), 6085–6099 (2018)
Werth, C.J., Cirpka, O.A., Grathwohl, P.: Enhanced mixing and reaction through flow focusing in heterogeneous porous media. Water Resour. Res. 42, 12 (2006)
Wood, B.D., Quintard, M., Whitaker, S.: Jump conditions at non-uniform boundaries: the catalytic surface. Chem. Eng. Sci. 55(22), 5231–5245 (2000)
Wright, E.E., Richter, D.H., Bolster, D.: Effects of incomplete mixing on reactive transport in flows through heterogeneous porous media. Phys. Rev. Fluids 2(11), 114501 (2017)
Zimmerman, R.W., Bodvarsson, G.S.: Hydraulic conductivity of rock fractures. Transp. Porous Med. 23(1), 1–30 (1996)
Acknowledgements
D.B’s portion of this work was supported by the US Army Research Office under Contract/Grant number W911NF-18-1-0338. M.R.S. and J.D.H. thank the Department of Energy (DOE) Basic Energy Sciences program (LANLE3W1) for support. M.R.S. would like to thank the Center for Nonlinear Studies for support. M.R.S. and J.D.H. also gratefully acknowledge support from the LANL LDRD program office Grant Number #20180621ECR. Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by Triad National Security, LLC, for the National Nuclear Security Administration of US Department of Energy (Contract No. 89233218CNA000001). dfnWorks is open source software and can be obtained at https://github.com/lanl/dfnWorks LA-UR-20-26548.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sherman, T., Sole-Mari, G., Hyman, J. et al. Characterizing Reactive Transport Behavior in a Three-Dimensional Discrete Fracture Network. Transp Porous Med 146, 307–327 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-021-01568-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-021-01568-4