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Software
PAWorks
 Geometry
is the key to understanding flow and transport in a wide range of practical
flow and transport problems. Examples include connections
- Between different wells in an oil field
- Bewteen radioactive waste repositories and the biosphere
- Between contaminated zones and monitoring systems
- Between wells for wellhead protection projects
PAWorks was designed to provide an easy to use, approximate method for evaluating
the properties of geometric connections in fractured rock masses. These geometric
connections are referred to as "pathways." Pathways are defined by
searching through the fracture system between user defined boundary conditions
to determine the most significant connections, according to user-defined selection
criteria.
PAWorks is part of the FracMan discrete feature modeling package, and works
directly with FracWorks discrete feature network
(DFN) models. PAWorks provides a tool to analyze the flow and transport behavior
of discrete feature networks.
PAWorks requires input consisting of
- Fracture network geometries generated by FracMan/FracWorks,
- Wells, tunnels, and planes defining the location and geometry of boundaries,
sources and sinks,
- Boundary conditions, and analysis control parameters
Once these files have been loaded, PAWorks identifies potential transport pathways
by graph theory analysis, calculates pathway properties based on approximate
flow and transport solutions.
In its most basic form, PAWorks is concerned only with geometric connections,
and therefore does not require any information concerning heads, gradients,
or fluxes. The effective properties of pathways can be calculated by assuming
simple series flow through the fracture network. However, for many applications,
it is desirable to use more sophisticated approximations for the head field.
For these purposes, PAWorks includes options to calculate approximate head field
solutions based on pipe flow assumptions, and also an option to read head field
values directly from the MAFIC three dimensional flow
and transport simulator. Once approximate head solutions have been obtained,
pathway searches can be carried out based on flux and travel time as well as
pipe network properties. PAWorks/LTG provides a multiple porosity advection-sorption-diffusion-decay
solute transport solution based on PAWorks pipe networks.
PAWorks Features
| PAWorks |
Features |
| Platforms |
Windows 95
Windows NT
Unix (Dec Alpha) |
| Flow Solution |
MAFIC 1D (Pipe Flow) Finite Element (Single Phase,
Single Porosity), or
Series Curcuit Approximation |
| Transport Solution |
Effective Pathways Properties, or
Linkage to PAWorks/LTG Transport Code (Laplace Transform
Galerkin Method 1-D Transport with Matrix Diffusion) |
| Pathways Search |
Depth First
Breadth First, or
"Follow the Flux" |
| Pathway Properties Reported |
Effective Conductance
Length
Effective Width and Surface Area
Diffusion Depth
Discharge Locations
Pathway Geometry
Pathway Branches |
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