Permeability of Fractured Media under Confining Pressure: A SimplifiedModel

摘要

An elastic-plastic model was developed to describe the deformation and permeability of fractured rocks underconfining pressure. Elastic and elastic-plastic contact models were used in the model to analyze the deformations of arepresentative element containing a single fracture under various confining pressures. The present work utilized elementsfrom contact mechanics and viscous flows to derive an expression for permeability of fractured rocks under a range ofconfining pressures. The elastic-plastic model predictions for coal permeability under loading and unloading confiningpressure were compared with the experimental data. The new model exhibited trends similar to the data for the range ofconfining pressures used in the experiments. The model can be used to predict the permeability of other fractured mediawith different material properties.