Variation in hydraulic conductivity of fractured rocks at a dam foundation during operation

Characterizing the permeability variation in fractured rocks is important in various subsurface applications,but how the permeability evolves in the foundation rocks of high dams during operation remains poorly understood.This permeability change is commonly evidenced by a continuous decrease in the amount of discharge(especially for dams on sediment-laden rivers),and can be attributed to fracture clogging and/or hydromechanical coupling.In this study,the permeability evolution of fractured rocks at a high arch dam foundation during operationwas evaluated by inverse modeling based on the field timeseries data of both pore pressure and discharge.A procedure combining orthogonal design,transient flow modeling,artificial neural network,and genetic algorithm was adopted to efficiently estimate the hydraulic conductivity values in each annual cycle after initial reservoir filling.The inverse results show that the permeability of the dam foundation rocks follows an exponential decay annually during operation(i.e.K/K0=0.97e^(-0.59t)+0.03),with good agreement between field observations and numerical simulations.The significance of the obtained permeability decay function was manifested by an assessment of the long-term seepage control performance and groundwater flow behaviors at the dam site.The proposed formula is also of merit for characterizing the permeability change in riverbed rocks induced by sediment transport and deposition.

Laboratory investigation of coal sample permeability under the coupled effect of temperature and stress

The stress and temperature sensitivities of coal reservoirs are critical geological factors affectingcoalbed methane(CBM)well exploitation;in particular it is important to reduce or eliminate their influence on coal reservoir permeability.To investigate coal permeability behavior at various effective stresses and temperatures,CH4 permeability tests were conducted on raw coal samples under a varying effective stress of 2.0-8.0 MPa under five different temperatures(25℃-65℃)in the laboratory.The results show that the permeability of the coal samples exponentially decreases with increasing effective stress or temperature,which indicates obvious stress and temperature sensitivity.Through a dimension-less treatment of coal permeability,effective stress,and temperature,a new stress sensitivity index S and tempera-ture index ST are proposed to evaluate coal stress and temperature sensitivity evaluation parameters.These new parameters exhibit integrality and uniqueness,and,in combination with stress sensitivity coefficient αk,tempe-rature sensitivity coefficient αT,and the permeability damage rate PDR,the sensitivities of coal permeability to stress and temperature are evaluated.The results indicate that coal sample stress sensitivity decreases with increasing effective stress,while it first decreases and then increases with increasing temperature.Additionally,coal sample temperature sensitivity shows a downward trend when temperature increases and fluctuates when effective stress increases.Finally,a coupled coal permeability model considering the impacts of effective stress and temperature is established,and the main factors affecting coal reservoir permeability and their control mechanism are explored.These results can provide some theoretical guidance for the further development of deep CBM.

Bearing Fault Numerical Model for the Closed-slot Rotor Submersible Motor

A numerical model of the bearing fault of a motor with a closed-slot rotor using the finite element method(FEM)is proposed.The rotor’s radial motion can be regarded as static eccentric at the defect time points and healthy at other time points.The frequency of the harmonic component is analyzed corresponding to bearing fault in stator current according to the radial movement of the motor shaft.Moreover,the relative permeability variation region is established to achieve the radial motion of the rotor with bearing fault.Firstly,the relative permeability variation region is established in the health and static eccentric models.Then,the defect time points are estimated and the static eccentricity model by transient field is analyzed.Finally,the relative permeability of the variable region in the static eccentric model is imported into the variable region of the health model at the defect time points.The simulation results show that the air gap flux density of the bearing fault model is different from that of the health model and static eccentric models.In addition,the stator current contains harmonic components of the bearing fault.The analysis results prove the applicability of the proposed model.