Speaker
Description
Modelling flow and transport in discrete fracture networks (DFNs) has developed considerably over the past decades, yet the field continues to be reshaped by new conceptual challenges, computational advances, and emerging applications. This talk provides a personal perspective on the evolution of DFN modelling, from foundational concepts to current challenges and future directions.
A central theme is flow channelling and transport using a Lagrangian framework, where particle travel times and transport resistance provide intuitive measures of transport variability and solute retention in fractured rock. Results from stochastic DFN ensembles highlight how fracture connectivity and small-scale heterogeneity can produce early arrivals, long-tailed breakthrough behaviour, and large variability between network realisations that conventional continuum approaches often fail to capture.
A second theme concerns coupled thermal-hydrological freeze-thaw processes relevant to future cold-climate conditions. Seasonal permafrost dynamics and glacial loading can strongly alter groundwater flow, transport pathways, and fracture properties over timescales ranging from seasons to glacial cycles.
The talk concludes with perspectives on key open challenges, including internal fracture heterogeneity, coupled TH/THM processes, and stochastic upscaling of flow and transport in fractured rock systems.