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A geometrical approach to percolation through random fractured rocks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

N. Rivier
Affiliation:
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA Center for Nonlinear Studies, MS B 258, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, USA
E. Guyon
Affiliation:
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, 93106, USA Laboratoire d'Hydrodynamique et de Mécanique Physique, ERA 071000 du CNRS, Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles, 10, rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris, Cedex 05, France
E. Charlaix
Affiliation:
Laboratoire d'Hydrodynamique et de Mécanique Physique, ERA 071000 du CNRS, Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles, 10, rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris, Cedex 05, France

Abstract

The permeability of rocks fractured by random, planar cracks, is expressed as a classical bond percolation problem on a random lattice, by Voronoi partition of space. The percolation threshold is determined as a function of the statistical characteristics of the cracks, or of their traces on an arbitrary face of the rock, by using an empirical quasi-invariant of percolation theory.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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