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Temporal Moment Analysis of Multi-Species Radionuclide Transport in a Coupled Fracture-Skin-Matrix System with a Variable Fracture Aperture

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Abstract

This paper presents an analysis using temporal moments to study multi-species radionuclide transport along a single fracture with variable fracture aperture in a fracture-skin-matrix system. In the present study, a decay chain having three elements is considered and transport of each member in the decay chain is modeled by solving a coupled system of partial differential equations for fracture, fracture-skin, and rock matrix using explicit finite difference method. Having obtained the concentration distribution, lower order temporal moments of radionuclide distribution are computed to analyze the effective velocity and macro-dispersion coefficient of radionuclides in the fracture. In the present study, effect of varying fracture aperture on transport characteristics of radionuclides is also analyzed. It is found that the fracture aperture variation profile has significant impact on radionuclide distribution along the fracture. Sensitivity analysis is carried out in a fracture-skin-matrix system with sinusoidal fracture aperture to study the effect of various parameters like fracture aperture thickness, fracture-skin porosity, fracture-skin diffusion coefficient, flow rate, radioactive decay constant, and Freundlich sorption isotherm exponent on transport characteristics of radionuclide. The results suggest that the above mentioned parameters significantly influence concentration, distribution, mobility, and effective macro-dispersion coefficient of radionuclides along the fracture.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the corresponding editor as well as the anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the quality of the manuscript.

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  1. Research Scholar, Petroleum Engineering Program, Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT-Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    V. Renu

  2. Petroleum Engineering Program, Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT-Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

    G. Suresh Kumar

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Renu, V., Suresh Kumar, G. Temporal Moment Analysis of Multi-Species Radionuclide Transport in a Coupled Fracture-Skin-Matrix System with a Variable Fracture Aperture. Environ Model Assess 21, 547–562 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-016-9515-5

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