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2 Physical Characteristics of Fractured Rock Controlling Flow and Transport
Pages 20-25

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From page 20...
... Matrix and fracture porosities contribute differently to contaminant fate and transport, and although the importance of multiple porosities has long been recognized within academe, much engineering and hydrogeologic work in general practice is dependent on tools that cannot accommodate multiple porosities. This chapter introduces the geologic, geomechanical, geochemical, geobiological, and hydrogeologic contexts to understand and effectively characterize rock fracture and matrix geometries and properties.
From page 21...
... . Variations in fracture aperture arise from geomechanical process (e.g., fracture propagation processes, shear displacement, in situ stress history)
From page 22...
... Multiple fractures within a rock mass can be described most effectively by grouping fractures with similar spatial patterns, extents, and orientations into sets. Physical characteristics such as roughness, infillings, physical apertures, and planarity can then be described for the fracture sets as variability distributions among the fracture population and correlations between properties (e.g., between orientation and extent, or between extent and physical aperture)
From page 23...
... Porosity alone is not a complete descriptor of the void space in the rock matrix. Pore size distribution needs to be adequately characterized to understand immiscible fluid invasion and the potential for bioactivity (Mitchell and Santamarina, 2005)
From page 24...
... Immobile porosity is the combined volume of interconnected matrix porosity and hydraulically inactive fracture porosity divided by the total volume. Inaccessible porosity is the void volume of the rock not accessible by fluids or diffusing compounds, divided by the total volume.
From page 25...
... . The same principles used to predict fracture orientation, intensity, size, spatial pattern, and hydraulic properties in fractured rock may apply to fractures found in soils including residual soils (e.g., Arnould, 2006)


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