For many decades, the rock mechanics community has been tacitly assumed that a rock mass can be equated to the sum of fractures and intact rocks. Accordingly, the behavior of a rock mass can be ...

Previous chapters have addressed fracture geometry, physical and geomechanical properties of single fractures, fracture detection, and the interpretation of hydraulic and tracer tests. All of these ...

Suggested Citation: "2 Physical Characteristics of Fractured Rock Controlling Flow and Transport." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. Characterization, Modeling, ...

1. Introduction -- 2. Stress -- 3. Displacement and strain -- 4. Relation between stress and strain -- 5. Loading of brittle rock to failure -- 6. Stress concentration -- 7. Theories of brittle ...

This image shows the variation in permeability in a network of fractures due to quartz dissolving in the fractures. Each plane represents an individual fracture in the network. Fractures are the main ...