Influence of surface roughness on nonlinear flow behaviors in 3D self-affine rough fractures: Lattice Boltzmann simulations

•3D Fracture geometry was decomposed into primary and secondary roughness with wavelet analysis.•The role of secondary roughness in the nonlinearity of flow through rock fractures was illustrated by high-resolution LBM simulations.•The mechanisms of nonlinear flow (eddy flow and back flow) caused by secondary roughness were demonstrated.•The Forchheimer's law proves to well represent the nonlinear flow behaviors in the 3D fractures. This study investigates the impacts of surface roughness on the nonlinear fluid flow through three-dimensional (3D) self-affine rock fractures, whose original surface roughness is decomposed into primary roughness (i.e. the large-scale waviness of the fracture morphology) and secondary roughness (i.e. the small-scale unevenness) with a wavelet analysis technique. A 3D Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is adopted to predict the flow physics in rock fractures numerically created with and without consideration of the secondary roughness, respectively. The simulation results show that the primary roughness mostly controls the pressure distribution and fracture flow paths at a large scale, whereas the secondary roughness determines the nonlinear properties of the fluid flow at a local scale. As the pressure gradient increases, the secondary roughness enhances the local complexity of velocity distribution by generating and expanding the eddy flow and back flow regions in the vicinity of asperities. It was found that the Forchheimer's law characterizes well the nonlinear flow behavior in fractures of varying roughness. The inertial effects induced by the primary roughness differ only marginally in fractures with the roughness exponent varying from 0.5 to 0.8, and it is the secondary roughness that significantly enhances the nonlinear flow and leads to earlier onset of nonlinearity. Further examined were the effects of surface roughness on the transmissivity, hydraulic aperture and the tortuosity of flow paths, demonstrating again the dominant role of the secondary roughness, especially for the apparent transmissivity and the equivalent hydraulic aperture at high pressure gradient or high Reynolds number. The results may enhance our understanding of the role of surface roughness in the nonlinear flow behaviors in natural rock fractures.