The Impact of Nonlinear Flow Regime on the Flow Rate in Fractal Fractures

Geometric properties of fractures, such as aperture and width, among others, significantly affect the fluid flow behaviors in fractured media. Previous studies have shown that fractures exhibit fractal properties. In this study, we examine the impact of nonlinear flow regimes and aperture and width fractal distributions on the flow behavior through fractal fractures. Both the aperture and width are treated independently following fractal distribution, but with distinct fractal dimensions. We explicitly examine the flow features without using Darcy's law concept, which relies on the linear flow assumption with an effective permeability of fractal fractures. We directly consider the flow rate in a fracture with average aperture, average flow rate, and flow rate of linear flow in all the fractures, and nonlinear flow rate in all the fractures, and more realistically, the average flow rate when linear and nonlinear flows may coexist in different fractures and their differences. The results demonstrate that the nonlinear flow regime significantly reduces the flow rate through the fractal fractures, which could be quantified by the ratio of critical aperture to the minimum aperture in the fractal fractures. A large ratio of the maximum over the minimum apertures results in a large average flow rate in the fractal fractures. The increase in the minimum aperture also enhances the average flow rate. When the minimum aperture is close to the critical aperture, however, the flow rate in the fractal fractures starts to turn into nonlinear flow in all the fractures, and the average flow rate decreases. The nonlinear effect is amplified in fractal fractures compared to that in a single fracture. A larger fractal dimension of aperture leads to a lower average flow rate in the fractal fractures, as the average aperture decreases with the fractal dimension. However, the fraction of flow rate from the linear flow portion in the fractal fractures over the pure linear flow in all the fractures increases with the fractal dimension.