Influence of aperture field heterogeneity and anisotropy on dispersion regimes and dispersivity in single fractures

A 33 factorial experimental design was implemented to numerically investigate the interactive effect of the mean (μb), standard deviation (σb), and anisotropic ratio (AR) (λbx/λby) of single‐fracture apertures on dispersion regimes (specifically Taylor dispersion and geometric dispersion) and dispersivity. The Reynolds equation was solved to obtain the flow fields in each computer‐generated fracture, and the random walk particle tracking method …