Direct Computation of Fracture Network Equivalent Porous Medium Properties Using Digital Outcrop Models
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abstract
In the present work, near-deterministic DFNs constrained to exposed fracture trace patterns are used as the basis for fracture porosity and permeability calculations. The method uses a moving window spatial search across a digital outcrop model surface to derive per-vertex calculations of fracture porosity and Oda's permeability tensor, based upon normals, apertures and areas captured within the search domain. This analysis produces a spatially resolved vertex property field of fracture permeability which can be used as the basis for geostatistical modelling of fractured rock mass petrophysical properties, foregoing the need to build an intermediary idealized DFN using fracture survey data. The approach is demonstrated using naturally fractured exposures of the Mishrif Formation, UAE.
