FracPaQ: A MATLAS (TM) toolbox for the quantification of fracture patterns

摘要

The patterns of fractures in deformed rocks are rarely uniform or random. Fracture orientations, sizes, and spatial distributions often exhibit some kind of order. In detail, relationships may exist among the different fracture attributes, e.g. small fractures dominated by one orientation, larger fractures by another. These relationships are important because the mechanical (e.g. strength, anisotropy) and transport (e.g. fluids, heat) properties of rock depend on these fracture attributes and patterns. This paper describes FracPaQ a new open source, cross-platform toolbox to quantify fracture patterns, including distributions in fracture attributes and their spatial variation.