Experimental and visual analysis of single-phase flow through rough fracture replicas

Single phase water flow experiments were performed on seven tightly closed, rough model fractures. Each model has mirror-image transparent upper and opaque lower walls reproduced from the original single fractures created by laboratory indirect tensile tests of different rock types. The experiments were conducted under both non-loading and normal loading conditions as well as in two opposite injection directions. Surface roughness of model fractures was quantified using variogram fractal dimension.