Prediction of the Macroscopic Properties of Fractured Porous Media
Tuesday, September 24, 2013: 4:25 p.m.
Pierre Adler
,
CNRS, Paris
Jean-François Thovert
,
CNRS, Futuroscope Chasseneuil Cedex
Valeri Mourzenko
,
CNRS, Futuroscope Chasseneuil Cedex
A major concern in the study of fractured media is the prediction of their properties such as the percolation of the fracture network and the macroscopic permeability from the few field quantities which are easily measurable.
Our approach is based on the systematic use of the excluded volume of fractures. When the percolation threshold of the fracture network and the macroscopic permeability are plotted as functions of r', defined as the number of fractures per excluded volume, they become independent of the fracture shapes, which is a decisive simplification for the applications.
r' can be estimated from measurements performed on intersections of fracture networks with lines, planes, and galleries. These intersections are visible on outcrops, cliffs, quarries, wells, and tunnels. Some remarkable relations hold whatever the fracture shapes if they are convex.
Applications of this approach to real cases will be discussed.
During the presentation, the meshing of the fractured medium and the discretization of the equations will be detailed. This methodology can be applied to arbitrary fracture network geometries, and to arbitrary distributions of permeabilities in the porous matrix and in the fractures.
Pierre Adler, CNRS, Paris
Pierre Adler is Director of Research for CNRS at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, France, where he leads a team working on transport phenomena in the Laboratory Sisyphe. He earned his diploma of Ingénieur de l'Ecole Centrale de Paris in 1970 and the Docteur es Sciences Physiques degree in 1975 at the University of Paris. He has published four books and more than 200 journal articles.
Jean-François Thovert, CNRS, Futuroscope Chasseneuil Cedex
Jean-François Thovert is Director of Research for CNRS at the Pprime Institute in Poitiers, France, where he is heading a research group about heterogeneous combustion and porous media. He graduated from Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in 1982 and obtained his Ph.D. in 1987 at the University of Paris. He authored one book and a hundred articles in this field.
Valeri Mourzenko, CNRS, Futuroscope Chasseneuil Cedex
Valeri Mourzenko is Director of Research for CNRS at the Pprime Institute in Poitiers, France, where he is in a research group about heterogeneous combustion and porous media. He graduated from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute in 1983 and obtained his Ph.D. there in 1986. His interests since then have covered many aspects of porous and fractured media, dynamics of electrically conductive fluids, by theoretical and numerical approaches. He authored 70 articles in these fields.
