Permeability Prediction in Roughened Fractures Under Stress Condition Using Fractal Model

The prediction of permeability in rough fracture under stress condition presents ever more of a challenge in various scientific and engineering fields. However, up to now, the essential controls on stress-dependent permeability of rough fracture are not determined. In order to find a relationship between the microstructure and the permeability of rough fracture, an analytical method for the permeability of roughened fracture under stress condition is proposed based on the fractal model. The validity of the proposed model is obtained by the good agreement between the simulated results and the experimental data. Compared with the previous models, our model takes into account more factors, including the influence of the microstructural parameters of rough fracture and rock lithology. This paper presents that (1) the rock with soft lithology can yield smaller normalized permeability, (2) normalized permeability decreases with the increases of percent of smaller rough elements. The fractal permeability model can reveal more mechanisms that affect the coupled flow deformation behavior in the fractured porous media.