Cardona, A., Liu, Q., & Santamarina, J. C. (2023). The capillary pressure vs.
saturation curve for a fractured
rock mass: fracture and matrix
contributions, Scientific Reports, 13:12044.
Abstract
The fractal topography of fracture surfaces challenges the upscaling of laboratory test results to the
field scale, therefore the study of rock masses often requires numerical experimentation. We generate
digital fracture analogues and model invasion percolation to investigate the capillarity-saturation
Pc-Sw fracture response to changes in boundary conditions. Results show that aperture is Gaussian - distributed and the coefficient of variation is scale-independent. The aperture contraction during
normal stress increments causes higher capillary pressures and steeper Pc-Sw curves, while shear
displacement results in invasion anisotropy. The three-parameter van Genutchen model adequately
fts the fracture capillary response in all cases; the capillary entry value decreases with fracture size,
yet the fracture Pc-Sw curve normalized by the entry value is size-independent. Finally, we combine
the fracture and matrix response to infer the rock mass response. Fracture spacing, aperture statistics
and matrix porosity determine the rock mass capillarity-saturation Pc-Sw curve. Fractures without
gouge control the entry pressure whereas the matrix regulates the residual saturation at high capillary
pressure Pc.
Keywords
capillary pressuresaturation curvefractured rock massdigital fracture analogues