Single and multiphase flow through fractured porous media

Flow in fractured porous media is investigated by a direct, exact and complete numerical solution of the flow equations for arbitrary distributions of permeabilities in the porous matrix and in the fracture network. For single phase flow, the macroscopic permeability of the network has been systematically computed; the main parameters are the fracture density, the ratio between the characteristic fracture and porous medium permeabilities. Some results are presented and discussed; they show the importance of the percolation threshold of the fracture network and possibly of the porous matrix. The same work is underway for two-phase flow. The unsteady non-linear equations are solved in the same general setting. The method of solution is presented, together with illustrative simulation results.