Permeability variation with fracture dissolution: Role of diffusion vs. drift

Pores and fractures in rocks are continually being reshaped through different chemical and physical processes. Fluids filling the pore space carry the different chemical species responsible for these changes. In the present work we study the relative effects of drift and diffusion of these particles, through a random walk. A bias imposed on the walker determines the competition between drift and diffusion, i.e. to a variation of the Peclet number. We find that the pore structure and hence permeability depends strongly on the bias.