Flow simulation in 3D Discrete Fracture Networks

Natural fractured media are characterized by their diversity of structures and organization. Numerous studies in the past decades have evidenced the existence of characteristic structures at multiple scales [1]. At fracture scale, the aperture distribution is widely correlated and heterogeneous. Fractures themselves have widely varying sizes with no obvious dominating or characteristic scale. At network scale, the topology is complex resulting from mutual mechanical interactions as well as from major stresses. The diversity of structures results in widely varying mechanical, hydraulic and transport properties that require some description of the underlying fracture geometries to be predicted.