Tail shortening with developing eddies in a rough-walled rock fracture

Understanding fluid flow and solute transport in rough-walled fractures is important in many problems such as geological storage of CO2 and siting of radioactive waste repositories. The first microscopic observation of fluid flow and solute transport through a rough-walled fracture was made to assess the evolution of eddies and their effect on non-Fickian tailing. A noteworthy phenomenon was observed that as the eddy grew, the particles were initially caught in and swirled around within eddies, and then cast back into main flow channel, which reduced tailing. This differs from the conventional conceptual model, which presumes a distinct separation between mobile and immobile zones. Fluid flow and solute transport modeling within the 3-D fracture confirmed tail shortening due to mass transfer by advective paths between the eddies and the main flow channel, as opposed to previous 2-D numerical studies that showed increased tailing with growing eddies.