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) (λ^bx/λ^by) 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 …