Quantification of aperture and relations between aperture, normal stress and fluid flow for natural single rock fractures

Accurate quantification of rock fracture aperture is important in investigating hydro-mechanical properties of rock fractures. Liquefied wood's metal was used successfully to determine the spatial distribution of aperture with normal stress for natural single rock fractures. A modified 3D box counting method is developed and applied to quantify the spatial variation of rock fracture aperture with normal stress. New functional relations are developed for the following list: (a) Aperture fractal dimension versus effective normal stress; (b) Aperture fractal dimension versus mean aperture; (c) Fluid flow rate per unit hydraulic gradient per unit width versus mean aperture; (d) Fluid flow rate per unit hydraulic gradient per unit width versus aperture fractal dimension. The aperture fractal dimension was found to be a better parameter than mean aperture to correlate to fluid flow rate of natural single rock fractures. A highly refined variogram technique is used to investigate possible existence of aperture anisotropy. It was observed that the scale dependent fractal parameter, K_v, plays a more prominent role than the fractal dimension, D_a1d, on determining the anisotropy pattern of aperture data. A combined factor that represents both D_a1d and K_v, D_a1d × K_v, is suggested to capture the aperture anisotropy.