Premium
Upscaling of fracture hydraulics by means of an oriented correlated stochastic continuum model
Author(s) -
Öhman Johan,
Niemi Auli
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 - 10.1029/2002wr001776
Subject(s) - statistical physics , hydraulics , conductivity , stochastic modelling , fracture (geology) , mathematics , stochastic process , hydraulic conductivity , mechanics , geology , geotechnical engineering , physics , statistics , soil science , thermodynamics , quantum mechanics , soil water
Two methods for upscaling hydraulics of fractured media are compared, namely, a classical fracture network based approach and a new enhanced stochastic continuum approach, the benefit of the latter being that while avoiding some of the complexities of fracture network models, it still can describe strong heterogeneity better than a classical stochastic continuum approach. In the continuum approach the fracture‐induced heterogeneity is taken into account through an oriented, conductivity‐dependent correlation structure. In addition, the radius of influence of the well tests is considered when assigning input conductivity statistics. The best fitting correlation structure of the continuum model is determined based on how well the results from the fracture network model can be reproduced. The results show that this best fitting correlation structure closely resembles in shape the probability distribution of fracture transmissivities. In other words, in the conductivity range where there is a large number of fractures in the fracture network model, large correlation lengths should be used in the stochastic continuum model, while the conductivity ranges with few fractures correspond to small correlation lengths in the stochastic continuum model.