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Development and application of a CAD interface for fractured rock

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

The implementation of numerical methods involving geometrical description of geosystems with the application of numerical meshes is of vital importance for investigation and modelling of complex, coupled, natural, or man-induced processes. Innovative application of CAD-Systems in combination with computer aided modeling of such systems provides a user-friendly powerful tool for the often complex geometrical descriptions necessary for comprehensive modeling of the dominant in situ processes. Here the development of such a CAD interface is presented, based on GOCAD, coupled with the software engineering of the finite element program RockFlow/RockMech and the implementation of polylines to describe complex geometrical structures and surfaces. This program allows the calculation of flow, transport, and deformation processes in one or more fluid phases in fractured and porous media. Such simulation is becoming increasingly important, especially in the fields of waste disposal, geothermal energy, and groundwater supply management. Here an example of the application of the CAD interface to RockFlow is presented for the modeling of flow during artificial stimulation (a 300-day long pump test) of a potential geothermal reservoir in the deep continental borehole (KTB) program at Windischeschenbach, Germany.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank particularly the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the GeoForschungsZentrum, Potsdam (GFZ). The application of RockFlow to modelling the pump data from the KTB site was made possible through the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the SPP-ICDP program. Significant financial support for carrying out the pump test was also received from the GeoForschungsZentrum, Potsdam (GFZ). In addition, the data from the KTB field pump test was provided by the KTB science team.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Applied Geoscience, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

    Thomas Kalbacher, Wenqing Wang, Chris McDermott & Olaf Kolditz

  2. Faculty of Environmental Science and Technology, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan

    Takeo Taniguchi

Authors
  1. Thomas Kalbacher
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  2. Wenqing Wang
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  3. Chris McDermott
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  4. Olaf Kolditz
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  5. Takeo Taniguchi
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Correspondence to Thomas Kalbacher.

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Kalbacher, T., Wang, W., McDermott, C. et al. Development and application of a CAD interface for fractured rock. Environ Geol 47, 1017–1027 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-005-1236-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-005-1236-z

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