The hydraulic efficiency of single fractures: correcting the cubic law parameterization for self-affine surface roughness and fracture closure

Kottwitz, Maximilian O.; Popov, Anton A.; Baumann, Tobias S.; Kaus, Boris J. P.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-947-2020

Articles | Volume 11, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-947-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Faults, fractures, and fluid flow in the shallow crust

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-947-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 3

Research article

|

29 May 2020

Research article |

| 29 May 2020

The hydraulic efficiency of single fractures: correcting the cubic law parameterization for self-affine surface roughness and fracture closure

Maximilian O. Kottwitz, Anton A. Popov, Tobias S. Baumann, and Boris J. P. Kaus

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Final revised paper (published on 29 May 2020)
Preprint (discussion started on 03 Jan 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'General and specific comments', Guido Blöcher, 14 Feb 2020
- AC1: 'Response to RC1', Maximilian O. Kottwitz, 08 Apr 2020
RC2: 'Review of manuscript se-2019-190', Anonymous Referee #2, 23 Mar 2020
- AC2: 'Response to RC2', Maximilian O. Kottwitz, 08 Apr 2020
  - EC1: 'Response to revised version from Reviewer 2', Randolph Williams, 27 Apr 2020
    - AC3: 'Response to EC1', Maximilian O. Kottwitz, 28 Apr 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Maximilian O. Kottwitz on behalf of the Authors (16 Apr 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (21 Apr 2020) by Randolph Williams

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (28 Apr 2020) by Randolph Williams

AR by Maximilian O. Kottwitz on behalf of the Authors (28 Apr 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (05 May 2020) by Randolph Williams

ED: Publish as is (05 May 2020) by Federico Rossetti (Executive editor)

AR by Maximilian O. Kottwitz on behalf of the Authors (05 May 2020)

Short summary

In this study, we conducted 3-D numerical simulations of fluid flow in synthetically generated fractures that statistically reflect geometries of naturally occurring fractures. We introduced a non-dimensional characterization scheme to relate fracture permeabilities estimated from the numerical simulations to their geometries in a unique manner. By that, we refined the scaling law for fracture permeability, which can be easily integrated into discrete-fracture-network (DFN) modeling approaches.