Introducing a MATLAB Code as a Statistical Approach for Fracture Networks Modelling

Fracture network modeling is important in simulating fluid flow, identifying reservoir storage areas, recognizing aquifers, and managing the groundwater pathway to prevent wall failure in mine stability consideration. In other words, precise estimation of mass transport and hydrology parameters depends on the accuracy of fracture modeling. This study presents a new iterative fracture network-modeling MATLAB code that directly models the statistical geometry of the fractures. The code is employed to simulate the parameters of fractures in terms of density, orientation, and length distribution. The method is applied to a real 2-Dimensional fracture network image from an exposed wall to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented code. Its performance is assessed by three criteria, including fracture length distribution, producing fracture orientation, and fracture density. According to the assessment results, the statistical method can reproduce the length distribution and density of the fracture network similar to the reference. In addition, the method performs almost well in modeling the orientation of fractures.