Modelling the diffusion-available pore space of an unaltered granitic rock matrix using a micro-DFN approach

•The heterogeneous crystalline rock matrix has been conceptualised as a micro-DFN.•The model describes the intergranular space with a level of detail of a few microns.•The model has been calibrated against experimental data from Forsmark (Sweden).•The model is a tool for the evaluation of the matrix buffering capacity. In sparsely fractured rock, the ubiquitous heterogeneity of the matrix, which has been observed in different laboratory and in situ experiments, has been shown to have a significant influence on retardation mechanisms that are of importance for the safety of deep geological repositories for nuclear waste. Here, we propose a conceptualisation of a typical heterogeneous granitic rock matrix based on micro-Discrete Fracture Networks (micro-DFN). Different sets of fractures are used to represent grain-boundary pores as well as micro fractures that transect different mineral grains. The micro-DFN model offers a great flexibility in the way inter- and intra-granular space is represented as the different parameters that characterise each fracture set can be fine tuned to represent samples of different characteristics. Here, the parameters of the model have been calibrated against experimental observations from granitic rock samples taken at Forsmark (Sweden) and different variant cases have been used to illustrate how the model can be tied to rock samples with different attributes. Numerical through-diffusion simulations have been carried out to infer the bulk properties of the model as well as to compare the computed mass flux with the experimental data from an analogous laboratory experiment. The general good agreement between the model results and the experimental observations shows that the model presented here is a reliable tool for the understanding of retardation mechanisms occurring at the mm-scale in the matrix.