Phase-field Modeling of Fracture Cementation Processes in 3-D

Numerical simulations of fracture cementation contribute to a better understanding of processes involved in their formation and possess the potential to provide valuable insights into the rock deformation history and fluid flow pathways. In this study, the influence of an algorithmically generated fracture surface is investigated, which opens‐up temporally along a curved trajectory, on the cement mineralization in 3‐D. By adopting a thermodynamically consistent and numerically efficient phasefield approach, the benefits of accounting for an extra third dimensionality are explained. The 3‐D simulation results are supplemented by innovative numerical post‐processing and advanced visualization techniques. The new methodologies to measure the tracking efficiency of fracture cements reflect the incremental fracture opening and demonstrate the importance of accounting the temporal evolution of grains in 3‐D; no such information is usually accessible in field studies and difficult to obtain from laboratory experiments. The grain growth statistics obtained by numerically post‐processing the 3‐D computational microstructures show that cement’s grain boundaries and multi‐junctions are preferentially arrested at fracture peaks, thereby, enhancing the tracking behavior of syntectonic rock microstructures. By analyzing the temporal evolution of the numerically simulated microstructure, it is found that the grain multi‐junctions are pinned more strongly at the peaks on the fractured surface, as compared to the grain boundaries.

並列關鍵字

Cementation ； Phase‐field Method ； Anisotropic Surface Energy ； Polycrystalline Evolution ； Post‐processing Techniques

國際替代計量

全文下載

主題瀏覽