{
  "abstract": "Geological fractures exhibit heterogeneous aperture fields that localize flow along preferential pathways and produce nonuniform fluid-matrix contact times. Heat transport combines channelized advection with conductive matrix exchange. For non-Newtonian fluids, shear thinning biases the aperture-to-flux mapping toward larger apertures, while yield stress suppresses flow below the mobilization threshold. A stochastic semi-analytical model represents aperture classes as parallel pathways with constitutive fluxes and superposes their channel-scale advection-conduction solutions for a semi-infinite matrix. Matrix diffusion sets the late-time scalings of breakthrough curves and front moments, while aperture variability and rheology control their amplitudes and crossover. Rheology affects spreading through high-order flux-weighted aperture moments that determine persistent inter-channel variance. For monomial flux laws, the reduced late-time amplitudes collapse onto a single similarity variable, so shear thinning acts as amplified effective aperture variability. Global sensitivity analysis attributes flux reweighting to shear thinning and hydraulic accessibility to yield stress. Two-dimensional simulations verify the construction for Newtonian and power-law flow. A connected rough-field comparison at low aperture variability recovers mean advance and outlet survival but overestimates variance, so Ellis and Herschel-Bulkley results remain independent-channel predictions. The model provides an interpretable reference limit separating rheology-controlled hydraulic selection from matrix-controlled transport.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "Journal reference: Advances in Water Resources 218 (2026) 105507",
  "arxiv": "2608.15735",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Alessandro Lenci"
    },
    {
      "name": "Irene Daprà"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9yyc1n0t20223.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2608.15735",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "9yyc1n0t20223",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.15735",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.flu-dyn"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.geo-ph"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.15735",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-29",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9yyc1n0t20223.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:25:48Z",
      "native_id": "2608.15735",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.15735"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.geo-ph",
      "subfield": "geophysics"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.flu-dyn",
      "subfield": "fluid-dynamics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Rheology-controlled hydraulic selection in fracture-matrix heat transport: Mechanisms and thermal signatures",
  "title_text": "Rheology-controlled hydraulic selection in fracture-matrix heat transport: Mechanisms and thermal signatures",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:25:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/9yyc1n0t20223",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.1016/j.advwatres.2026.105507",
      "pid": "d15bfpc0d8q58",
      "relation": "published-as",
      "title": "Rheology-controlled hydraulic selection in fracture-matrix heat transport: Mechanisms and thermal signatures",
      "venue": "Advances in Water Resources"
    }
  ]
}