ABSTRACT
Intact rocks are generally impermeable. However, natural rocks often contain fractures due to temperature and stress changes. When an interconnected fracture network exists, fluid can be transmitted. If fractures are large in size and few in number, they can be modeled as discrete cracks with given size, orientation, aperture width, etc.123• 124 If they are small and numerous, statistical averaging should be applied to model them as a continuum. With the exception of cases in which the fracture location and width can be mapped, fractured aquifers are generally modeled as porous continua.
