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Effective permeability of fractured porous media in steady state flow
Author(s) -
Bogdanov I. I.,
Mourzenko V. V.,
Thovert J.F.,
Adler P. M.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2001wr000756
Subject(s) - porous medium , permeability (electromagnetism) , mechanics , discretization , percolation (cognitive psychology) , compressibility , percolation threshold , fracture (geology) , flow (mathematics) , matrix (chemical analysis) , porosity , finite volume method , materials science , geotechnical engineering , geometry , mathematics , geology , mathematical analysis , physics , composite material , membrane , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , biology , electrical resistivity and conductivity , genetics
Flow in fractured porous media was first investigated by Barenblatt and Zheltov [1960] and Barenblatt et al. [1960] by means of the double‐porosity model. A direct, exact, and complete numerical solution of the flow in such media is given in this paper for arbitrary distributions of permeabilities in the porous matrix and in the fracture network. The fracture network and the porous matrix are automatically meshed; the flow equations are discretized by means of the finite volume method. This code has been so far applied to incompressible fluids and to statistically homogeneous media which are schematized as spatially periodic media. Some results pertaining to random networks of polygonal fractures are presented and discussed; they show the importance of the percolation threshold of the fracture network and possibly of the porous matrix. Moreover, the influence of the fracture shape can be taken into account by means of the excluded volume.