The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

A Finite Element Model of Fluid Flow in Systems of Deformable Fractured Rock

Hilber, Hans M.; Taylor, Robert L.

UCB/SESM-1976/05, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1976-11, 71 pages

A two-dimensional finite element model of fluid flow in fractured rock masses is introduced. The model permits simulation of fractured rock systems which are at an incipient state of instability and prediction of the behavior of such systems when their state of stress is changed by injection or removal of fluid. A computer program based on the model is developed.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/SEMM/SEMM-76-05.pdf (2 MB)