Tracer tests in fractured rocks with a new fluorescent dye - Pyrene-1,3,6,8-tetra sulphonic acid (PTS)

Two multi-tracer tests were performed in fissured rocks accessible in underground laboratories to examine a new fluorescent dye: pyrene-1,3,6,8-tetra sulphonic acid (PTS). The first test was carried out at the Lindau Rock Laboratory (LRL), Germany, in a highly permeable ore dike, and the second, at the Grimsel Test Site (GTS), Switzerland, in a heterogeneous granite fault zone (AU 126). At the LRL new tracer was injected together with uranine in a convergent flow field (monopole test), and slightly different tracer breakthrough curves were observed according to different diffusion coefficients of both tracers. The matrix porosity calculated with the aid of the one-dimensional (1-D) single-fissure dispersion model (SFDM) agrees well with that found in earlier tracer tests and with measurements performed on core samples. At the GTS, the PTS tracer was applied together with pyranine in two-well injection-withdrawal (dipole) tests. Both tracers yielded identical tracer concentration curves, which confirm their conservative behaviour. Mathematical simulations performed with the aid of a 3-D numerical model (FRAC3DVS) yielded equally good fits for different sets of parameters, independent of whether matrix porosity was included or neglected. That lack of unique solution and the difficulty in observing the influence of matrix diffusion result from a wide distribution of the transit times of particular streamlines, which is characteristic for injection-withdrawal tests. However, both tracer tests clearly indicated that the new tracer (PTS) behaves conservatively at high pH values and can be successfully used for groundwater labelling.