Numerical Modelling of Steady-State Flow in 2D Cracked Anisotropic Porous Media by Singular Integral Equations Method

The equations governing plane steady-state flow in heterogeneous porous media containing curved-line intersecting cracks (Pouya and Ghabezloo in Transp Porous Media 84:511-532, 2010) and the potential solution obtained for these equations are considered here. The theoretical results are first completed for the mass balance at crack intersections points. Then, a numerical procedure based on a singular integral equations method is described concretely to derive this solution for cracked materials. Closed-form expressions of elementary integrals for special choice of collocation points lead to a very quick and easy numerical method. It is shown that this method can be applied efficiently to the study of the steady-state flow in cracked materials with anisotropic matrix permeability and a dense distribution of curved-line intersecting cracks. Some applications of this method to the permeability of cracked materials are given. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.