Nicolas Lavenant

Active-distributed temperature sensing to continuously quantify vertical flow in boreholes

We show how a distributed borehole flowmeter can be created from armored Fiber Optic cables with the Active-Distributed Temperature Sensing (A-DTS) method. The principle is that in a flowing fluid, the difference in temperature between a heated and unheated cable is a function of the fluid velocity. We outline the physical basis of the methodology and report on the deployment of a prototype A-DTS flowmeter in a fractured rock aquifer. With this design, an increase in flow velocity from 0.01 to 0.3 m s−1 elicited a 2.5°C cooling effect. It is envisaged that with further development this method will have applications where point measurements of borehole vertical flow do not fully capture combined spatiotemporal dynamics.

Heat as a tracer for understanding transport processes in fractured media: Theory and field assessment from multiscale thermal push‐pull tracer tests

The characterization and modeling of heat transfer in fractured media is particularly challenging as the existence of fractures at multiple scales induces highly localized flow patterns. From a theoretical and numerical analysis of heat transfer in simple conceptual models of fractured media, we show that flow channeling has a significant effect on the scaling of heat recovery in both space and time. The late time tailing of heat recovery under channeled flow is shown to diverge from the TðtÞ / t 21:5 behavior expected for the classical parallel plate model and follow the scaling TðtÞ / 1=tðlog tÞ 2 for a simple channel modeled as a tube. This scaling, which differs significantly from known scalings in mobile-immobile systems, is of purely geometrical origin: late time heat transfer from the matrix to a channel corresponds dimensionally to a radial diffusion process, while heat transfer from the matrix to a plate may be considered as a one-dimensional process. This phenomenon is also manifested on the spatial scaling of heat recovery as flow channeling affects the decay of the thermal breakthrough peak amplitude and the increase of the peak time with scale. These findings are supported by the results of a field experimental campaign performed on the fractured rock site of Ploemeur. The scaling of heat recovery in time and space, measured from thermal breakthrough curves measured through a series of push-pull tests at different scales, shows a clear signature of flow channeling. The whole data set can thus be successfully represented by a multichannel model parametrized by the mean channel density and aperture. These findings, which bring new insights on the effect of flow channeling on heat transfer in fractured rocks, show how heat recovery in geothermal tests may be controlled by fracture geometry. In addition, this highlights the interest of thermal push-pull tests as a complement to solute tracers tests to infer fracture aperture and geometry.

Inferring field-scale properties of a fractured aquifer from ground surface deformation during a well test

Fractured aquifers which bear valuable water resources are often difficult to characterize with classical hydrogeological tools due to their intrinsic heterogeneities. Here, we implement ground surface deformation tools (tiltmetry and optical leveling) to monitor groundwater pressure changes induced by a classical hydraulic test at the Ploemeur observatory. By jointly analyzing complementary time constraining data (tilt) and spatially constraining data (vertical displacement), our results strongly suggest that the use of these surface deformation observations allows for estimating storativity and structural properties (dip, root depth, lateral extension) of a large hydraulically active fracture, in good agreement with previous studies. Hence, we demonstrate that ground surface deformation is a useful addition to traditional hydrogeological techniques and opens possibilities for characterizing important large-scale properties of fractured aquifers with short-term well tests as a controlled forcing.

Combining periodic hydraulic tests and surface tilt measurements to explore in situ fracture hydromechanics

Fractured bedrock reservoirs are of socio-economical importance, as they may be used for storage or retrieval of fluids and energy. In particular, the hydromechanical behavior of fractures needs to be understood as it has implications on flow and governs stability issues (e.g., microseismicity). Laboratory, numerical, or field experiments have brought considerable insights to this topic. Nevertheless, in situ hydromechanical experiments are relatively uncommon, mainly because of technical and instrumental limitations. Here we present the early stage development and validation of a novel approach aiming at capturing the integrated hydromechanical behavior of natural fractures. It combines the use of surface tiltmeters to monitor the deformation associated with the periodic pressurization of fractures at depth in crystalline rocks. Periodic injection and withdrawal advantageously avoids mobilizing or extracting significant amounts of fluid, and it hinders any risk of reservoir failure. The oscillatory perturbation is intended to (1) facilitate the recognition of its signature in tilt measurements and (2) vary the hydraulic penetration depth in order to sample different volumes of the fractured bedrock around the inlet and thereby assess scale effects typical of fractured systems. By stacking tilt signals, we managed to recover small tilt amplitudes associated with pressure-derived fracture deformation. Therewith, we distinguish differences in mechanical properties between the three tested fractures, but we show that tilt amplitudes are weakly dependent on pressure penetration depth. Using an elastic model, we obtain fracture stiffness estimates that are consistent with published data. Our results should encourage further improvement of the method.

Neutrally buoyant tracers in hydrogeophysics: Field demonstration in fractured rock

Electrical and electromagnetic methods are extensively used to map electrically conductive tracers within hydrogeologic systems. Often, the tracers used consist of dissolved salt in water, leading to a denser mixture than the ambient formation water. Density effects are often ignored and rarely modeled but can dramatically affect transport behavior and introduce dynamics that are unrepresentative of the response obtained with classical tracers (e.g., uranine). We introduce a neutrally buoyant tracer consisting of a mixture of salt, water, and ethanol and monitor its movement during push-pull experiments in a fractured rock aquifer using ground-penetrating radar. Our results indicate a largely reversible transport process and agree with uranine-based push-pull experiments at the site, which is in contrast to results obtained using dense saline tracers. We argue that a shift toward neutrally buoyant tracers in both porous and fractured media would advance hydrogeophysical research and enhance its utility in hydrogeology.

Understanding the Hydromechanical Behavior of a Fault Zone From Transient Surface Tilt and Fluid Pressure Observations at Hourly Time Scales

Flow through reservoirs such as fractured media is powered by head gradients which also generate measurable poroelastic deformation of the rock body. The combined analysis of surface deformation and subsurface pressure provides valuable insights of a reservoirs structure and hydromechan-ical properties, which are of interest for deep-seated CO 2 or nuclear waste storage for instance. Among all surveying tools, surface tiltmeters offer the possibility to grasp hydraulically induced deformations over a broad range of time scales with a remarkable precision. Here we investigate the information content of transient surface tilt generated by the pressurization a kilometer scale subvertical fault zone. Our approach involves the combination of field data and results of a fully coupled poromechanical model. The signature of pressure changes in the fault zone due to pumping cycles is clearly recognizable in field tilt data and we aim to explain the peculiar features that appear in (1) tilt time series alone from a set of four instruments and 2) the ratio of tilt over pressure. We evidence that the shape of tilt measurements on both sides of a fault zone is sensitive to its diffusivity and its elastic modulus. The ratio of tilt over pressure predominantly encompasses information about the systems dynamic behavior and extent of the fault zone and allows separating contributions of flow in the different compartments. Hence, tiltmeters are well suited to characterize hydromechanical processes associated with fault zone hydrogeology at short time scales, where spaceborne surveying methods fail to recognize any deformation signal.