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چکیده
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The percolation properties and permeability of a group of anisotropic three-dimensional fracture networks are studied numerically. Finite-size scaling is used to extrapolate the percolation thresholds of infinite networks in three spatial directions, i.e., X, Y, and Z directions. The influence of the angular dispersion parameter of fracture orientations on percolation thresholds is analyzed. In this analysis, we considered a family of fractures in a three-dimensional space that are oriented around the Z axis based on the Fisher distribution. We revealed that increased anisotropy leads to decreased percolation thresholds in both X and Y directions, and in these two directions percolation thresholds in anisotropic networks demonstrate a declining trend as anisotropy goes up. However, in the Z direction the trend is the opposite. The fracture networks are triangulated via an advancing front technique and the macroscopic permeability of the networks is determined by solving the twodimensional Darcy equation in each fracture. We found that the macroscopic permeability in the X and Y directions is higher than the associated permeability of isotropic fracture networks, and this property for anisotropic networks in the Z direction is lower compared with that of the isotropic case. Furthermore, as the anisotropy of networks increases the differences become more remarkable.
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