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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 92, NO. B2, PAGES 1337-1347, FEBRUARY 10, 1987

Fluid Flow Through Rock Joints' The Effect of Surface Roughness

STEPHEN R. BROWN 1

GeophysicsGroup, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico

Fluid flow through rock joints is commonly describedby the parallel plate model where the volume
flow rate varies as the cube of the joint aperture. However, deviations from this model are expected
becausereal joint surfacesare rough and contact each other at discretepoints. To examine this problem
further, a computer simulation of flow between rough surfaceswas done. Realistic rough surfaceswere
generated numerically using a fractal model of surface topography. Pairs of these surfaceswere placed
together to form a "joint" with a random aperture distribution. Reynolds equation, which describes
laminar flow between slightly nonplanar and nonparallel surfaces,was solved on the two-dimensional
aperture mesh by the finite-difference method. The solution is the local volume flow rate through the
joint. This solution was used directly in the cubic law to get the so-called "hydraulic aperture." For
various surface roughnesses(fractal dimensions) the hydraulic aperture was compared to the mean
separation of the surfaces.At large separations the surfacetopography has little effect. At small separa-
tions the flow is tortuous, tending to be channeled through high-aperture regions. The parameter most
affecting fluid flow through rough joints is the ratio of the mean separation between the surfacesto the
root-mean-square surface height. This parameter describesthe distance the surface asperities protrude
into the fluid and accounts for most of the disagreement with the parallel plate model. Variations in the
fractal dimension produce only a second-order effect on the fluid flow. For the range of joint closures
expectedduring elastic deformation theseresultsshow that the actual flow rate between rough surfacesis
about 70-90% of that predicted by the parallel plate model.

1. INTRODUCTION
The upper part of the earth's crust is highly fractured on all
scales ranging from microcracks to large-scale joints and
faults. Joints are well known for their effects on the mechani-
cal properties of rock, such as bulk elastic constants and shear
strength [Goodman, 1976; Gamdi, 1978; Bandis et al., 1983;
Brown and Scholz, 1985a]. Joints also control the permeability
of crystalline and tight sedimentary rock [Gamdi, 1978; Kranz
et al., 1979; Brace, 1980]. Fluid flow in fractured rocks there-
fore is a subject of primary importance in petroleum engineer-
ing, engineering geology, and hydrogeology and is applied in
oil and gas production from fractured reservoirs, reservoir
stimulation by hydrofracturing, hazardous waste isolation,
and geothermal energy extraction. For this reason consider-
able effort is being placed on characterization [Beydoun et al.,
1985; Paillet, 1985] and modeling [Noorishad et al., 1982;
Lon,qet al., 1985] of fractures and fracture systems.Of central
importance to many applications is the hydraulic behavior of
a single fracture. This is the basic building block of realistic
models of fluid flow in fracture systemsand the subject of this
paper.
In nearly all applications, fitfid flow through a single frac-
ture is assumed analogous to laminar flow between two per-
fectly smooth parallel plates. This leads to the so-called "cubic
law" [e.g., Gamdi, 1978; Kranz et al., 1979; Tsamdand Wither-
spoon, 1981; Schrauf and Evans, 1986]:
d3 dp
Q= - Ly121,t
dx
Now at Schlumberger-Doll
Research,Ridgefield,Connecticut.
This paper is not subjectto U.S. copyright.Publishedin 1987 by
the American Geophysical Union.
Paper number 6B6071.
where the volume flow rate Q varies as the cube of the separa-
tion betweenthe platesd (Figure 1). Here Ly is the width of
the fracture in the direction normal to fluid flow,/,t is the fluid
viscosity, and dp/dx is the fluid pressure gradient along the
fracture. If we compare (1) to Darcy's Law [e.g., Kranz et al.,
1979] we see that the intrinsic permeability of the parallel
plate fractureis k = d2/12.
The parallel plate model can be considered only a qualita-
tive description of flow through real fractures. Real fracture
surfaces are not smooth parallel plates, but are rough and
contact each other at discrete points [e.g., Gangi, 1978; Brown
and Scholz, 1985a]. Fluid is expected to take a tortuous path
when moving through a real fracture; thus deviations from the
cubic law are expected. The experimental work of Iwai [1976]
suggeststhat for rough-walled fractures under low normal
stress, changes in the aperture result in changes in flow rate
consistent with the cubic law. However, an electrical resistance
analog by Tsang [1984] suggeststhat a 1-2 order of mag-
nitude error should result from neglecting the tortuosity when
using the cubic law. In what follows I further explore the
magnitude and nature of the disagreementbetween the predic-
tions of the parallel plate model and the actual flow through
rough-walled fractures.
One would like to develop an expression,similar to (1), that
explicitly accounts for surface roughness.Several approaches
have been used in the past. Various empirical flow laws have
been presented that are based on experiments with idealized
geometry. One such experiment used parallel plates with sand
glued to the walls to mimic small-scaleroughnessand another
(1) used parallel plates with various machining marks to mimic
large-scale roughness (see Iwai [1976] for a review of these
experiments). Theoretical approaches have focused on re-
defining the aperture term in the cubic law to account for the
surfaceroughnessand the resulting tortuosity of the fluid flow
paths. Iwai [1976] presentsa one-dimensionalmodel where a
rough fracture consistsof a seriesof wedge-shapedincrements.
Tsang and Witherspoon [1981] replace the parallel plate aper-
ture with a particular two-dimensional average over the joint.
1337
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1338 BROWN: FLUID FLOW THROUGH ROCI,: JOINTS

z
by assumingthat the cubiclaw (equation(1)) holdslocallyand
Y
'• Q--Qx that massis conserved(V ßQ = 0).

3. FRACTAL SURFACES

Recently, Brown and Scholz [1985b] have shown that linear

profiles of natural rock surfaceshave power spectra of the
form G(k)• ks, where k = 2rr/2 is the wave number and 2 is
the wavelength.The reciprocalof the wavelengthis referredto
as the spatial frequency.As a first approximation,the slopes
of the power spectrumon a log-log plot is a constantranging
between -2 and -3. This spectral character is the same as
the fractal model of surfacetopographyproposedby Mandel-
brot [1983]. In the fractal model linear surface profiles have
Fig. 1. Parallel plate geometry usedin (1). spectraof the form G(k)• k -(?-21•), where D is the fractal
dimension of the surfaceand falls in the range 2.0 < D <_2.5.
The fractaldimension
of the profileitselfis De = D- 1. The
local surface height is distributed as a Gaussian random vari-
Walsh [1981] computes a correction to the cubic law which able with standard deviation a. Spatial correlation of the
dependson the percentageof real contact area and is based on height of two points on the surfaceis determinedby the slope
an analogy of heat flow through a flat plate with non- of the power spectrums = -(7- 2D). Steep spectralslopes,
conductive circular inclusions. Each of these approaches is or small fractal dimensions,result in high correlation of the
based on different assumptionsand thus yield different results. height of nearby points on the surface. These surfaceslook
In this paper I present a more direct approach to the study smoothon a fine scalebecause
the amplitudeof high-
of fluid flow through fractures. Using the finite-difference frequency roughness is small compared to that of low fre-
method I have done a computer simulation of laminar flow quencies.Conversely,surfaceswith shallow spectral slopes,or
between rough surfaces.The simulation was based on Reyn- large fractal dimensions, appear rough on a fine scale since
olds equation, a particular form of the Navier-Stokes equa- high-frequencyroughnessis more significant.Qualitatively,
tions approximating flow between rough surfaces[Pinkus and the fractal dimensionis a "jaggedness"parameter, indicating
Sternlicht, 1961]. The surfaceswere modeled as fractals, which the proportion of high- to low-frequencyroughness.
have been shown to be reasonable models of natural rock For the purposes of this study the fractal model was as-
surfaces [Brown and Scholz, 1985b]. This method of studying sumed to adequately describe the character of rock fracture
the effect of surface roughnesson fluid flow was first presented surfaces.The conceptof fractals providesa convenientalgo-
by Patir and Cheng [1978] in their study of hydrodynamic rithm for generation of realistic numerical surfaceswhich can
lubrication of rough bearings. Here, I extend their results to be used in the solution of Reynoldsequation. The particular
fluid flow in rock joints by using a fractal model of surface techniquechosento generatefractal surfacesfor this purpose
roughnessand by discussingthe results in the context of pre- is the recursivesubdivisionmethod of Fournier et al. [1982].
viously published work on the hydraulic behavior of rock This is a technique to interpolate between existing values
joints. using a fractal rule, and as used here, producessurfaceswith
homogeneousand isotropic roughness.With this method a
2. REYNOLDS EQUATION
surfaceis generatedon a mesh by interpolating from the out-
Lubrication engineers frequently use Reynolds equation as side in. The surfacesused in this study were all square with a
a basis for study of hydrodynamic lubrication of machine mesh size of 65 by 65. This was the maximum size which could
bearings. This differential equation, formulated in 1886 by Os- be consideredwith the available computing system. Linear
borne Reynolds, describes flow between slightly nonplanar profiles of the surfaces resulting from this algorithm have
and nonparallel surfaces.This equation can also be considered power spectrawhich are approximatelylinear in log-log space
to describe the lowest-order effects of surface roughness on as required. I refer the reader to the original referencefor a
flow between two surfaces.The most general form of Reynolds more technical discussionof the generation of fractal surfaces.
equation describessteady state laminar flow of a compressible Profiles of natural rock fractures have spectra with slopes
viscous fluid between two moving surfaces.In this paper I between -2 and -3 corresponding to surface fractal dimen-
consider only the specialcase of steady state flow of an incom- sions of 2.5 to 2.0, respectively.I generated surfaceswhose
pressiblefluid between stationary surfaces.In this case Reyn- profiles have fractal dimensionswithin this range for usein the
olds equation can be written as flow simulations. Examples of the two extreme cases are
shown in Figure 2. This figure illustrates the two components
v. of surface roughnessconsideredin this study. Both surfaces
have the same standard deviation of height a, but have differ-
where d(x, y) is the local thicknessof the fluid film and p(x, y) ent autocorrelation functions. Nearby points on the lower sur-
is the local fluid pressure. Pinkus and Sternlicht [1961] show face (Figure 2b) are more highly correlated with each other
that Reynolds equation can be derived from the Navier-Stokes than corresponding points on the upper surface (Figure 2a).
equations. The assumptionswhich go into the derivation place This correlation is describedby either the spectral slope or the
some restrictions on the types of surfaceroughnessthat can be fractal dimension.
considered. While this derivation is rather involved, we can The surfaces used in this study deviate from the fractal
derive (2) in a simple manner, as suggestedby Walsh [1981], model in one important way. The largest wavelengthfeatures
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BROWN'FLUID FLOWTHROUGH
Fig. 2. Examplesof fractal surfacesgeneratedfor the flow simulations.Both surfaceshave the samestandarddeviation
of heighta. Bothweregenerated
withthesamesetof randomnumbers
(b) D - 2.0.
of a fractal surfacehave the largestamplitude.In contrast,the
surfacesusedhere were forcedto be flat at the longestwave-
lengths,and they approximatefractalbehavioronly at smaller
wavelengths.This was done by forcingthe four cornerpoints
of the squaremesh,the midpointsof the sides,and the center
point to have small height relative to the rest of the surface
(Figure 2). In this casethe powerspectraof linear profilesroll
off rapidly at the lowestfrequencies(Figure 3). This rendered
the relationship betweenthe desiredfractal dimension and the
spectralslope(true fractaldimension)as specifiedin the algo-
rithm of Fournieret al. [1982] invalid and an empiricalre-
lationshiphad to be found. The purposeof usingtheseflat-
tened surfacesis twofold. First, the surfacescomposingreal
fracturesare mated or correlatedwith each other at long
wavelengthsand uncorrelatedat smallerwavelengths[Brown
and Scholz, 1985b, 1986]. Flattening the numerical surfaces
usedin this study imposesa similar long wavelengthcorre-
lation. Second, two fractal surfaces of finite size which are
uncorrelatedwill usually,becauseof the high amplitudelong
wavelengthfeatures,touch only at one dominant place. The
flattened surfacesused here tend to touch more frequently.
When the number of contacts is large, less variation in the
results of the flow simulationsis seen among statistically
equivalent fractures.
To form a fracture, two surfaces with the same fractal di-
mension, but comprised of different sets of random numbers,
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ROCKJOINTS 1339
but havedifferentfractaldimension
D. (a) D = 2.5.
were placed together at some fixed distance. For all fractures,
the surfaceswere held parallel and the mean separation be-
tween them is referredto as the mechanicalapertured, [-see
Brown and Scholz, 1985a]. The aperture distribution d(x, y)
used in the flow simulations was taken as the local distance
between the surfaces.Various mechanicalapertureswere con-
sidered. Real rough surfaceshave an absolute maximum and
minimum height and thus have truncatedheight distributions.
The model surfacesused here have Gaussian height distri-
butions with a standard deviation a. The distributions were
truncated for surface height greater or less than 3a from the
mean level. Following a well-known result of statisticsfor the
sum of two random functions, two uncorrelated Gaussian sur-
faceswith standarddeviation of height a will just touch when
d, • 3x//2a,
assuming
thatthehighest
peaks
onthesurfaces
are about 3a from the mean plane [e.g., Brown and Scholz,
1985a]. Thus the surfacesare separated at approximately
dm> 4.24aand touchingat smallervalues.For d, < 4.24athe
numerical surfacesoverlap or interpenetrateat some places.
At these "contacts"the deformationof the surfaceswas ig-
nored and the local aperture d(x, y) was set to zero as if the
material at the contactshad been dissolvedaway. Figure 4
showsexamplesof the local aperturedistributionsfor a single
fractureat two differentmechanicalapertures.
The definition of the "aperture" of a rough-walledfracture
is not unique.In addition to the mechanicalapertureanother
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1340 BROWN: FLUID FLOW THROUGH ROCK JOINTS

In all cases the boundary conditions applied were as fol-

I0-
O3
I -
Z this boundary condition is difficult to apply, sincethe contacts
r•
_J
0.1 -
0.01 - components are the terms inside the brackets in (2). Plots of
0.01
FREQUENCY(L-I)
Fig. 3. Power spectral density functions for linear profiles of the
surfaces shown in Figure 2. Units of the axes are such that the vari-
ance of height a = 1.0 and the spacing between mesh points on the
surfaces
lT= ly= 1.0.Noticethe roll off in powerat low spatialfre-
quencies, which makes the surfaces nominally fiat. An ideal fractal
surface would have linear spectra on a log-log plot. Slopes of -2 and
-3 correspond to surface fractal dimensions of 2.5 and 2.0, respec-
tively.
relevant measure in terms of fluid flow is the mean aperture:
(d)= L.•. :0 :0d(x, y) dx dy
whereL.• and L•. are the dimensionsof the fracture.The mean
aperture more closely represents the aperture available to
flow. When the surfacesare not touching (dm> 4.24a) then
(d} is the same as dm. However, when the surfacestouch
(dm< 4.24a) then (d) is always greater than dm.One can ima-
gine a situation where dm= 0 and there are still open fluid
pathways. Later, comparisons of the solution of Reynolds
equation with the cubic law will be made in terms of thesetwo
measures of aperture.
4. FLOW SIMULATIONS effectiveparallel plate aperture or "hydraulic" aperture dh for
the rough-walled fracture. For the given boundary conditions,
The flow simulations were done as follows. pairs of surfaces
the hydraulic aperture is defined by
were generated with the same fractal dimension, but were
otherwise uncorrelated. Fractal dimensions considered
2.0, 2.25, and 2.5 (corresponding to the range observed in
nature). The surfaceswere placed together at various mechani-
cal aperturesto form a rough-walled fracture. Ten values of dm
were considered,ranging from 10a (complete separation) to la
(intimate contact). In the computer simulation, numerical
values had to be chosen for all parameters. Therefore to
obtain the most general result (2) was written in dimensionless
form, with all dependent and independent variables scaled to
appropriate characteristicvalues. This dimensionlessequation
was then written in finite-difference form and solved for the
pressurefield p(x, y) by standard matrix inversiontechniques
[e.g., Lapidus and Pinder, 1982].
lows. Fluid pressure was held constant along two opposite
sidesof the fracture, and a pressuregradient was set up across
the fracture by setting the pressure on each side to different
values. No fluid was allowed to flow across the other two sides
of the fracture. This was done by setting to zero the pressure
gradient perpendicular to these sides.Ideally, there should be
no fluid flow across the boundaries of the contacts. However,
have random size,shape, and location. Nearly identical results
can be obtained by allowing flow through the contact areas,
but requiring that it be much smaller than the flow elsewhere.
For this purpose the aperture in the contact areas was set to a
small value such that d3= 10 -6. This was the smallest value
which avoided round-off errors and division by zero in the
matrix inversion.
The pressure field was differentiated and used in the cubic
law to calculate the local volume flow rate vectors, whose
these vectors representthe flow field in the fracture. Examples
of how the flow field changes as the mechanical aperture of a
single fracture decreasesare shown in Figures 5 through 7. To
produce more pleasing plots the scale for the length of the
vectors is different in each of the three figures. In these figures
the sidesof the simulation parallel to the left and right sidesof
the page are the constant pressure boundaries with the left
side having the higher pressure.The top and bottom sides are
the no-flow boundaries. Figures 6 and 7 show that when the
surfaces touch the flow is tortuous and tends to be channeled
through high-aperture regions around the contacts. When the
surfacesare completely separated, the effect of surface rough-
ness is still apparent (Figure 5). This is in contrast to the
parallel plate model where all flow vectors would be parallel
and of equal length.
Finally, the total volume flow rate through the fracture was
calculated. Flow is not allowed across two sides of the frac-
ture; therefore the total volume flow rate Q was calculated by
adding the contributions from the individual flow vectors
along any line extending across the fracture parallel to the
constant pressure boundaries. Total volume flow rates calcu-
lated in this manner vary by at most 1.5% from line to line
acrossthe entire fracture. This representsthe magnitude of the
errors in the finite-difference solution of Reynolds equation
and the subsequentnumerical differentiation of the pressure
field. The total volume flow rate and the macroscopicpressure
gradient were used in the cubic law (equation (1)) to obtain an
were
•0
Q=•v Ap
qxdy=--Lyl••L
x (3)
where Q is the total volume flow rate, Ap/L x is the macro-
scopicpressuregradient, L x is the length of the fracture paral-
lel to the no-flowboundaries,
Ly is the lengthparallelto the
constant pressureboundaries,and qx is the x component of
the local volume flow rate per unit width. Quantitative mea-
sures of the validity of the cubic law were then obtained by
comparing the hydraulic aperture to the mechanical aperture
dmand the mean aperture (d).
A total of 300 simulations were done. Three fractal dimen-
sions were used to generate model surfaces.Pairs of surfaces
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BROWN:
FLUIDFLOWTHROUGH
ROCKJOINTS 1341

Fig.4. Aperture
distributions
d(x,y)formed
byplacing
twosurfaces
(D= 2.5)together
atseparations
of(a)d,,= 2aand
(b)d,,= 1 a. Flatareasareregions
ofzeroaperture
or "contacts,"
defined
bytheoverlap
ofthetwosurfaces.

wereseparated
at 10 differentmechanical
apertures.
Finally, valuesfor the aperture.Sincethe viscosities,
the fracturesizes,
10 different pairs of surfaceswere consideredat each fractal and the macroscopic
pressuregradientswere the samefor all
dimension andmechanical aperture.Theserepeated runswere simulations,the ratio of volume flow rates is the same as the
necessary to determinethe variationin the resultsamongsta- cubeof the ratio of the apertures (equation(1)).Thesecom-
tisticallyequivalentfractures.The variationsarise becausethe parisons areshownin Figures8 through11.Figures8, 9, and
meshsize(65 by 65) is too smallcomparedto the contactsize. 10 comparethe hydraulicaperturedh to the meanaperture
Eachfracturestudiedheredoesnot containa representative (d) forvarious standardized separations ofthesurfaces d,,/a.
sampleof the sizesand shapesof contactareasand channels Figure11compares thehydraulicaperturedhto themechani-
givenby the particularcombination of fractaldimension,stan- cal aperture
d,,.To showthe variabilityamongstatistically
dard deviation,mechanical aperture,and long wavelengthequivalentfractures,Figure8 showsthe completeresultsfor
cutoff. To obtain more consistentresults from one simulation thefractaldimension D - 2.5.Thisvariationis typicalfor the
to the next the surface dimensions should be several times fractaldimensions considered. Figure9 showsthe arithmetic
largerthan the cutoffwavelength usedto imposethe corre- averagesof the data presentedin Figure 8. The error bars
lation betweenthe surfaces (Figure3). Largersurfaces could wereobtainedusingStudent's t distributionandrepresent the
not be considered with the availablecomputingsystem.For 99% confidence intervalfor the populationmean[Mandel,
this reason,many statisticallyequivalentfractureswere con- 1984-]. I expect that the values obtained from simulations
sideredwith the idea that the averageover all simulations usinga muchlargerfracturesizebut havingthe samelong
wouldbetterrepresentthebehaviorfor largerfractures. wavelength cutoff would fall within this interval.
5. RESULTS
Figures10 and 11 show the averagecurvesfor all fractal
dimensions.Perfectagreementbetweenthe numericalsimula-
The majorpurposeof thesesimulations wasto studythe tionsand the cubiclaw wouldplot as a horizontalline at level
nature of the disagreementbetween the cubic law and flow 1.0. These resultsshow marked deviationsfrom the cubic law
throughrough-walledfractures.For this purpose,I have at smallstandardized
separations
d,,/a.To firstorderthestan-
chosento compare the total volume flow rates from the simu- dardizedseparationcontrolsthe deviationfrom the cubiclaw.
lationsto thosepredictedby the cubiclaw usingreasonable Thisparameter
measures
howfar the surface
asperities
pro-
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1342 BROWN: FLUID FLOW THROUGH ROCK JOINTS

O.15SE
+,1•3
I,•qXI MUM VL:'C
T•R

Fig. 5. Flow lieldresulting

fromthe finitedifference
solution
of Reynolds
equation
for a surface
separation
of
d,,= 10a.Surfacesarecompletely
separated.
Leftandrightsides
ofthefracture
aretheconstant
pressureboundaries,
with
theleftsidehavingthehighest
pressure.No fluidis allowedto flowout thetopandbottomsides. Vectorsrepresent
the
relative
magnitudeanddirection
of thelocalvolume flowrate.Totalvolume flowratethroughthefracture
isgivenbythe
sumof the'ccomponents (componentsparallelto thenofiowboundaries) of thelocalflowvectors
alonganylineparallel
to the constantpressureboundaries.

smallerseparations.The mean aperture(d) alwaysoveresti-

trude into the fluid tilm. As this number decreases, the fracture
deviates more from the idealized parallel plate geometry. matesthe flow rate and givespoorer agreementwith the cubic
Varyingthe fractaldimensionhasa second-order effecton the law as the separationis decreased(Figure 10). The resultsfor
total volume flow rate. It is interestingto note, however, that the mechanicalaperturedmshowthe sametrend for a while,
on averagefractureswith high fractal dimensionstend have but the curveseventuallyreacha minimum at about dm• 1.5a
betteragreementwith the cubiclaw than thosewith low frac- and tend to infinity at smallerseparations(Figure 11). This is
tal dimensions.One possibleexplanationfor this behavioris becauseat small separationsthe mechanicalaperture dm de-
as follows. Surfaces with large fractal dimension D have creasesmore rapidly than the hydraulic aperture dh. Ulti-
larger-amplitudefeaturesat high frequencies than surfaces mately,dhand (d) can remainfinitewhendm= O.
with small D. Assume that two fractures are identical at long
6. DISCUSSION
wavelengths,but have differentfractaldimensions at smaller
wavelengths(Figure2). Locally,the fracturewith largeD will The resultsof theseflow simulationsimply that the predic-
haveboth largerand smalleraperturesthan the fracturewith tions of the cubic law worsen as the surfacesof a rough-walled
small D. For both fractures the local volume flow rate varies fracture are brought closer together. When the surfacesare
as the cubeof the aperture.Becauseof this cubicdependence, separated by onestandarddeviationof the surfaceroughness
the extra flow rate gained for the large D fracture over the o, the actualflow rate is 40-60% of that predictedby the use
small D fracture at each local high-aperture region will more of the mean aperture(d) in the cubic law. At all but the
than compensate for that lost at nearbylow-apertureregions. shallowestdepthsin the earth we may expectthat mostfrac-
Thus the large D fracturewill have the largestdh. Sinceboth ture surfaceswill be touchingand that there is somenormal
fractureshavethe samedmand nearlythe same(d>, the rela- stressactingto closethe fracture.Furthermore,compliance
tive positionsof the curveswill be the sameas in Figures10 measurements of fracturedsamplesshow that for the elastic
and 11. range,stresses
of up to 50 MPa resultin a maximumof 1-2a
Figures10 and 11 eachusea differentmeasureof aperture decreasein fractureaperture[e.g.,Brownand Scholz,1985a].
in the cubic law. The curvesin both figuresare the samewhen Somemechanismsuchas plasticflow, dissolution,or mineral-
the surfacesare separated(dm> 4.24a),but quite differentat ization would be required to decreasethe aperture much
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BROWN' FLUID FLOW THROUGH ROCK JOINTS
Fig. 6. Flow field for the same fracture as in Figure 5, but with a surfaceseparationof dm= 4a. Surfacesare just
touching with a fractional contact area of about 0.4øX,.Contacts are shown as blank patches.Notice that the flow is
through high aperture channelsbetween the contacts.
beyond this. Thus in Figures 8 through 11 upper crustal con-
ditions correspondrougly to 2a < d,, < 4.24a. For this range
Figures 10 and 11 are essentiallythe same, and the actual flow
rate will be 70-90% of that predicted by the cubic law. The
magnitude of this error is more in accordance with that of
lwai [1976] than that of Tsang [1984]. This is more apparent
when the data of Figures 10 and 11 are plotted in the same
manner as lwai [1976] (i.e., as the logarithm of flow rate
against the logarithm of aperture). This type of logarithmic
plot tends to mask the 10-30% deviation from the cubic law,
so it is not used here.
Based on a two-dimensional electrical resistance analog,
Tsang [1984] predicts a 1-2 order of magnitude deviation
from the cubic law. This is clearly larger than that measured
by Iwai [1976] and predicted here. One possible explanation
for this discrepancyis as follows. The model of Tsang and this
work differ in at least one important way. Tsang chose
random resistancevalues which had probability density func-
tions based on actual fracture apertures, but the resistorswere
distributed randomly in the plane of the fracture. In this paper
the apertures were taken from a truncated Gaussian distri-
bution, but becauseof the fractal assumptionWeredistributed
in the fracture plane in such a way that nearby points had
some short range correlation. Thus the model used here has a
tendency to form channels for flow, whereas Tsang's model
does not. Compared to the fractal model, Tsang's fractures
tend to have a larger number of isolated individual high-
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1343
aperture regions, which do not contribute much to the flow.
This gives poorer agreement with predictions of the cubic law
based on an average value of the aperture.
This study extends the work of Patir and Cheng [1978] on
the hydrodynamic lubrication of rough bearings. The major
difference between these studies is the particular model of sur-
face roughness employed. In their numerical simulations, Patir
and Cheng used surfaces with power spectra of the form
G(k) = (40•72)/(0•2
+ k2), where k = 2rr/2 is the wave number,
cr2 is the variance,and = is the decayconstant.This spectral
form corresponds to an exponentially decaying auto-
correlation function, which has been observed on many grit-
blasted and ground surfaces [e.g., Whitehouse and Archard,
1970]. However, based on the results of Brown and Scholz
[-1985b], I assumethat the fractal model is a better description
of the topography of rock joints. Recall that the fractal model
has a power spectrum of the form G(k)•k •, where
-3 < s < -2. However, results of the flow simulations (Fig-
ures 10 and 11) show that the flow rate is not particularly
sensitive to the slope of the power spectrum. Therefore my
results are quite similar to those of Patir and Cheng, and the
conclusions drawn from these data are not strongly dependent
on the particular model of surface roughness.However, Patir
and Cheng show that when the surface roughnesshas a strong
directional fabric, the flow rate can be quite different from the
flow rate for isotropic roughness.
Patir and Cheng [1978] found that their numerical results
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09902121051
09902121061

1344 BROWN'FLUID FLOW TtIROUGtIROCKJOINTS

O. q80E+• 1
M•X
IMUM
V•OR

Fig.7. Flowfield
forthesame
fracture
asinFigures
5and6,butwitha surface
separation
ofdm-- 20.Surfaces
arein
intimate contact with a fractional contact area of about 7ø/,,.

could be fit well by the equation (Figures10and 11).NeuzilandTracy[1981]suggested that a

moreappropriatetermis •d3}. However,the useof thistype
I dh13 (4) of averageimpliesthat the apertureof the fracturevariesonly
•-•J--1--Ae-
•{a./.) in a directionnormal to the applied pressuregradient.This
formulationneglectsvariationsin aperturealong the flow
where A- 0.90 and B = 0.56. In an experimentalstudy of
path and the resultingtortuosity[Tsanqand Witherspoon,
flow betweensand-coated
platesLomize[1951] foundthe em-
pirical relation
t

- 1+C(2d,•/a)
•'5 (5)
whereC = 17.0.In anotherstudyon flow betweenroughcon-
creteslabs,Louis[1969] alsofound(5) to fit theexperimental
data,but with C = 8.8.For furtherdiscussion of theworkof
Lomize and Louis refer to Iwai [1976]. I havefound that (4) dh
13.8
<d>

andespecially(5)fit thedatain Figure10quitewell.Thebest DATA

fittingconstants
A, B, andC in theaboveequations andthe
errorsin eachfit aregivenin Table 1. The constants
A and B
for the fractal surfacesare fairly closeto thosegivenby Patir
andChenq[1978],indicating
theinsensitivity
of theresultsto ! ! ! m , m

the particularmodelof surfacetopography.However,the '•0 5 t0

valuesof C from Table 1 differ significantlyfrom thosegiven dm/o'
by LomizeandLouis.Thisindicatesthat theirexperiments
showa largerdeviationfromthe cubiclaw than predicted Fig. 8. Hydraulicaperturedhcompared
to themeanaperture
here.The originof thisdiscrepancy
is not clear. for variousstandardized
separations
dm/a.Perfectagreementof the
flow simulationswith the cubic law would plot as a horizontal line at
It is alsopossible
to compare
theresults
fromthesesimula-
level 1.0. This figure showsthe completedata from the 100 flow
tions with sometheoreticalwork of others,which accountsfor simulations done with the fractal dimension D = 2.5. Variability at
the effectof surfaceroughnesson flow throughfractures.I eachstandardized
separationis typicalof that for all fractaldimen-
havealreadyshownthe magnitude
of the errorsin the cubic sions considered and is due to the small fracture size relative to the
law when either (d} 3 or d• 3 is usedfor the apertureterm long wavelengthcutoffshownin Figure3.
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09902121051
09902121061
BROWN: FLUID FLOW THROUGH ROCK JOINTS 1345

dh
<d>]3.8 ß D - :3.5

ß AVERAGE • D - 2.2õ

[] D-2.0

.4 , i i , i , i i
0 5 t0

dm/ o' am/o'

Fig. 9. Arithmetic averagesof the data shown in Figure 8. Error
bars represent the 99% confidence interval for the mean value as
given by Student's t distribution.
1981; Tsang, 1984]. Tsang and Witherspoon [1981] proposed
a modified cubic law where the flow rate was averaged both
parallel and perpendicularto the applied pressuregradient.
The resultingapertureterm is (d3}1/3/(l/d2}. This term is
defined only for d > 0 and thus cannot be used when the
surfacestouch. Walsh [1981] proposed a correction to the
cubic law accounting for the flow around contact areas. This
is based on an exact solution of Laplace's equation for heat
flow through a flat plate with nonconductive circular in-
clusions. Here, the flow rate is reduced by the factor
(1 -•)/(1 + •), where • is the ratio of the contact area to the
total area of the fracture. When the surfacesare not touching,
• - 0 and the correctionfactor is 1. Finally, many workers in
the field of flow through porous media multiply the flow rate
in idealized models, such as the parallel plate model, by the
tortuosityterm 1/r2, wherer is the ratio of the actualpath
length of the apparent path length of a fluid particle [e.g.,
Walsh and Brace, 1984].
Each of the corrections to the cubic law described
were computed for the fractures used in the flow simulations
donehere.The terms•d3>, •l/d2}, and • werecomputedfrom
the aperture distribution d(x, y). The term r was estimated
.8
Fig. 11. Hydraulic aperturedh comparedto the mechanicalaper-
ture dmfor all fractal dimensions.Each curve representsthe arithmetic
average of the data from 10 simulationsat a given fractal dimension
D. Curves on this figure are identical to those on Figure 10 when
d,, > 4.24a.
locally as the ratio of the length of a flow rate vector to the
length of its component parallel to the macroscopicpressure
gradient (x coordinate). A value of r for the entire fracture was
then taken as the averageof the local valuesweightedby the
local volume flow rate. For the rare occasion where the x
coordinate of a local flow vector was exactly zero, r is unde-
fined. Thus these flow vectors were not considered in the
average. Becauseflow was allowed through the contact areas,
correctionof the cubic law by the weightedaveragetortuosity
gavebetter agreementthan when all flow vectorshad an equal
contribution.
For the pt/rposes of illustration, these various corrections
and modificationsto the cubic law were computedfor a single
fracture with the fractal dimension D --- 2.5. The total volume
flow rate for this fracture at various aperturesis compared to
that predicted by each modified cubic law in Figure 12. The
above curve obtained by using the mean aperture (d) in the cubic
law is also shown for comparison.Perfect agreementbetween
the flow simulation and the cubic law plots as a horizontal
line at level 1.0. Ordinates between0.0 and 1.0 representover-
predictions of the flow rate by the cubic law. Values greater
than 1.0 representunderpredictions.For all assumptions,the
cubic law is within a factor of 2 of the actual flow rate when
the surfacesare separated(dm> 4.24o-).The arithmetic mean
aperture (d) gives better results than either of the more com-
plicatedaverages.The tortuositycorrection1/r2 givesnear
perfect results when the surfacesare separatedand the correc-

dh
<d>
ß O - •.$
tion for the contact area (1 -•)/(1 + •) gives relatively good
resultswhenthe surfacesare in intimatecontact(dm< 2.5o-).
/• D - 2.2õ
7. LIMITS OF APPLICABILITY
[] D-2.0

It is difficult to evaluate the limits of applicability of Reyn-

olds equation for real fractures. However, the results of the
flow simulations must at least be consistentwith the assump-
.4 i i i i i i i i i i
0 õ t0 tions used to derive Reynolds equation. In particular, one of
din/ o' these assumptionsrestricts the scalesof the surface topogra-
Fig. 10. Hydraulic aperture dh compared to the mean aperture
phy which can be consideredwith Reynolds equation [Pinkus
(d) for all fractal dimensions. Each curve represents the arithmetic and Sternlicht, 1961]. This assumption states that the velocity
average of the data from 10 simulations at a given fractal dimension gradientsin the plane of the fracture (c•/c•x,c•/c•y)must be small
D as shown in Figures 8 and 9. compared to the velocity gradients perpendicular to the frac-
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09902121051
09902121061

1346 BROWN' FLUID FLOW THROUGH Roc}c JOINTS

dh)
< d3> iI3 / < l/d 2>
t.5

dh3
<d> 3 x (1/, 2)

dh3
<d> • x (1-a)/(l+a)

dh3
<d> •
.5

dh3
<d3>

0 i a i i i i i i i
0 5 t0

dm/o'

Fig. 12. Comparison of the hydraulic aperture to several corrections and modifications to the cubic law. Perfect
agreement of the cubic law with the flow simulations would plot as a horizontal line of level 1.0. Points whose ordinates
are between 0.0 and 1.0 representoverpredictionsof the flow rate by the cubic law, whereasvalues greater than 1.0
representunderpredictions.Seetext for detailed explanation.

ture (3/3z). It is easy to show that the ratio of the velocity tween mesh points in the simulations would be of the order
gradients parallel and perpendicular to the plane of the frac- 500-5000 /•m. For Reynolds equation to strictly apply one
ture is proportional to the ratio of the standard deviation of restriction is that the surfaces must be smooth and almost

surface
heighta to the spacing
between
meshpointsIx andly. parallel below this scale.
In the simulations the equations were solved in dimensionless
8. CONCLUSIONS
form. The particular length scalesused when transforming to
dimensionlessvariables give results equivalent to assuming Fluid flow through rough-walled fractures was studied nu-
that a = lx = ly in the fully dimensionalequation.The as- merically using Reynolds equation and a fractal model of sur-
sumption about the velocity gradients forces these values to face topography. These results can be consideredto represent
change. the lowest order effects of surface roughness on fluid flow
During the simulations I evaluated the local ratio of the through fractures.The resultsshow that while the definition of
velocitygradientsin both the x and y directionsand produced aperture is not unique for a roughwalled fracture, all reason-
contour maps of these ratios. In the direction parallel to the able definitionsallow the cubic law to approximate the flow
macroscopicpressuregradient (x direction) most (>95%) of through fractureswithin a factor of 2. The use of the arithme-
the non-contactarea of the fracture surfaceis characterizedby tic mean value of the aperture gives better results than more
velocity gradient ratios lessthan 0.1-0.5. Correspondingratios complicated averages.Better resultscan be obtained, however,
in the y direction are less than 1-5. Ratios larger than these if the cubic law is modified to account for the tortuosity or for
tend to occur at isolated places, usually in relatively stagnant the real area of surface contact.
regions,near the boundariesof the contactareas(Figure 7).
The results can be made consistentwith assumptionabout the Acknowledgments. This work was supported by the Postdoctoral
Fellowship Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Special
velocitygradientsby forcingthe ratios a/l• and a/ly to be thanks to J. Rigert, T. Dey, and E. Dussan for many helpful dis-
small.For exampleit might sufficeto set l•- ly- 50a thus cussionsand to E. Dussan and R. Plumb for early critical reviews of
forcing the velocity gradient ratios to be <0.1. Brown and this manuscript. Los Alamos National Laboratory Unclassified
Scholz [1985b] showed that for a natural rock fracture whose Report 86-1592.
surfacesare correlated with each other on scalesgreater than
1 cm, the effective standard deviation of surface height a
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(Received May 15, 1986;
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