Hydrogeophysical characterization of transport processes in fractured rock by combining push-pull tracer tests and single-hole ground penetrating radar

TL;DR

This study combines push-pull tracer tests with time-lapse ground penetrating radar imaging to better understand complex transport processes in fractured rock, revealing flow pathways, trapping zones, and flow dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel coupling of tracer experiments with GPR imaging to reduce uncertainty in characterizing transport in fractured media.

Findings

Identified dominant fractures and tracer trapping zones.

Demonstrated flow channelization and radial flow patterns.

Showed influence of density-driven and ambient flows.

Abstract

The in situ characterization of transport processes in fractured media is particularly challenging due to the considerable spatial uncertainty on tracer pathways and dominant controlling processes, such as dispersion, channeling, trapping, matrix diffusion, ambient and density driven flows. We attempted to reduce this uncertainty by coupling push-pull tracer experiments with single-hole ground penetrating radar (GPR) time-lapse imaging. The experiments involved different injection fractures, chaser volumes and resting times, and were performed at the fractured rock research site of Ploemeur in France (H+ network, hplus.ore.fr/en). For the GPR acquisitions, we used both fixed and moving antenna setups in a borehole that was isolated with a flexible liner. During the fixed-antenna experiment, time-varying GPR reflections allowed us to track the spatial and temporal dynamics of the tracer during the push-pull experiment. During the moving antenna experiments, we clearly imaged the dominant fractures in which tracer transport took place, fractures in which the tracer was trapped for longer time periods, and the spatial extent of the tracer distribution (up to 8 m) at different times. This demonstrated the existence of strongly channelized flow in the first few meters and radial flow at greater distances. By varying the resting time of a given experiment, we identified regions affected by density-driven and ambient flow. These experiments open up new perspectives for coupled hydrogeophysical inversion aimed at understanding transport phenomena in fractured rock formations.