Comparison of Surface Roughness and Transport Processes of Sawed, Split and Natural Sandstone Fractures

In single fractures, dispersion is often linked to the roughness of the fracture surfaces and the resulting local aperture distribution. To experimentally investigate the effects of diverse fracture types and surface morphologies in sandstones, three fractures were considered: those generated by sawing and splitting, and a natural sedimentary fracture. The fracture surface morphologies were digitally analyzed and the hydraulic and transport parameters of the fractures were determined from Darcy and the tracer tests using a fit of a continuous time random walk (CTRW) and a classical advection–dispersion equation (ADE). While the sawed specimen with the smoothest surface had the smallest dispersivity, the natural fracture has the largest dispersivity due to strong anisotropy and non-matching fracture surfaces, although its surface roughness is comparable to the split specimen. The parameterization of the CTRW and of the ADE agree well for β > 4 of the truncated power law. For smaller values of β, non-Fickian transport processes are dominant. Channeling effects are observable in the tracer breakthrough curves. The transport behavior in the fractures is controlled by multiple constraints such as several surface roughness parameters and the equivalent hydraulic aperture.