ABSTRACT
In this paper, hydromechanical model is proposed for a fracture submitted to normal stress. The progressive joint closure is considered as a modification process of the fluid flow space, this process is characterised by internal compaction variable and the evolution of this variable is expressed as a function of joint closure. Furthermore, in order to describe hydromechanical coupling, the Biot’s effective stress concept for porous media is generalised to rock joints. The proposed coupled model, in association with fluid flow laws, provides a complete set of equations for modelling hydromechanical behavior of rock joints (pressure distribution in joint, flow rate prediction and joint closure). The numerical predictions from our model give good agreements with experimental data and with the results from other models on two granites.
