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A DISCRETE FRACTURE NETWORK GENERATION AND ANALYSIS LIBRARY FOR USE IN CAD SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS
  • YUSUF FALOLA
YUSUF FALOLA
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Abstract

Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) modelling and simulation is an active area of research in earth science due to the inability to observe detailed 3D structure of the subsurface fracture network. There are few software packages available for DFN modelling and simulation. However, they are mostly complex to use, commercial, and closed sourced. Thereby, precluding any form of adaptability by researchers to functionalities not included in these packages. This work introduces an easy to use, open source library, Y-Frac, for DFN modelling and analysis. Y-Frac is built upon the python APIs available on Rhinoceros 6. Hence, Y-Frac is fit for use on Rhinoceros software package. Y-Frac can model fracture networks containing circular, elliptical and regular polygonal fractures. This library is computationally cheap for DFN modelling and analysis. Some of the functionalities of this library for DFN analysis include fracture intersection analysis, cut-plane analysis, and percolation analysis. Algorithms for constructing an intersection matrix and determining percolation state of a fracture network are also included in this work. The output text file from this library containing modelled fracture networks’ parameters can serve as input for appropriate software packages to simulate flow and perform mechanical analysis in fracture networks. The practical applicability of Y-Frac was demonstrated by performing percolation threshold analysis of 3D fracture networks and comparing the results to published data.