International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2015) 75–80

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhmt

A fractal analysis of permeability for fractured rocks

Tongjun Miao a,b, Boming Yu a,⇑, Yonggang Duan c, Quantang Fang c
a
School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, PR China
b
Department of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Xinxiang Vocational and Technical College, Xinxiang 453007, Henan, PR China
c
State Key of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, 8 Xindu Road, Chengdu 610500, Sichuan, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Rocks with shear fractures or faults widely exist in nature such as oil/gas reservoirs, and hot dry rocks,
Received 6 September 2013 etc. In this work, the fractal scaling law for length distribution of fractures and the relationship among
Received in revised form 28 March 2014 the fractal dimension for fracture length distribution, fracture area porosity and the ratio of the maxi-
Accepted 5 October 2014
mum length to the minimum length of fractures are proposed. Then, a fractal model for permeability
Available online 25 October 2014
for fractured rocks is derived based on the fractal geometry theory and the famous cubic law for laminar
flow in fractures. It is found that the analytical expression for permeability of fractured rocks is a function
Keywords:
of the fractal dimension Df for fracture area, area porosity /, fracture density D, the maximum fracture
Permeability
Rock
length lmax, aperture a, the facture azimuth a and facture dip angle h. Furthermore, a novel analytical
Fractal expression for the fracture density is also proposed based on the fractal geometry theory for porous
Fractures media. The validity of the fractal model is verified by comparing the model predictions with the available
Fracture networks numerical simulations.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction assumed that fracture network consists of polygonal shape frac-

Fractured media and rocks with shear fractures or faults widely
exist in nature such as oil/gas reservoirs, and hot dry rocks, etc.
Usually, the fractures are embedded in porous matrix with micro
pores, which play negligible effect on the seepage characteristic,
and randomly distributed fractures dominate the seepage charac-
teristic in the media. The randomly distributed fractures are often
connected to form irregular networks, and the seepage character-
istic of the fracture networks has the significant influence on
nuclear waste disposal [1], oil or gas exploitation [2], and geother-
mal energy extraction [3]. In this work, we focus our attention on
the seepage characteristics of fracture networks in fractured rocks
and ignore the seepage performance from micro pores in porous
matrix.
Over the past four decades, many investigators studied the
seepage characteristics of fracture networks/rocks and proposed
several models. Snow [4] developed an analytical method for per-
meability of fracture networks according to parallel plane model.
Kranzz et al. [5] studied the permeability of whole jointed granite
and tested the parallel plane model by experiments. Koudina et al.
[6] investigated the permeability of fracture networks with numer-
ical simulation method in the three-dimensional space, they
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: yubm_2012@hust.edu.cn (B. Yu).
tures and fluid flow in each fracture meets the Darcy’s law. Dreuzy
et al. [7] studied the permeability of randomly fractured networks
by numerical and theoretical methods in two dimensions, and they
verified the validity of the model by comparing to naturally frac-
tured networks. Klimczak et al. [8] obtained the permeability of a
single fracture by parallel plate model with the fracture length
and aperture satisfying power-law and verified by the numerical
simulation. However, these models did not provide a quantitative
relationship among the permeability of fracture networks, poros-
ity, fracture density and microstructure parameters of fractures,
such as fracture length, aperture, inclination, orientation etc.
Fractures in rocks are usually random and disorder and they
have been shown to have the statistically self-similar and fractal
characteristic [3,9–13]. Chang and Yortsos [10] studied the single
phase fluid flow in the fractal fracture networks. Watanabe and
Takahashi [3] investigated the permeability of fracture networks
and heat extraction in hot dry rock by using fractal method. But,
they did not propose an expression of permeability with micro-
scopic parameters included. Jafari and Babadagli [14] obtained
the permeability expression with multiple regression analysis of
random fractures by the fractal geometry theory according to
observed data in the well logging. In addition, their expression
with several empirical constants does not include the orientation
factor and microstructure parameters of fracture networks. The
tree-like fractal branching networks were often considered as

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2014.10.010
0017-9310/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
76 T. Miao et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2015) 75–80
fracture networks by many investigators. Xu et al. [15,16] studied
the seepage and heat transfer characteristics of fractal-like tree
networks. Recently, Wang et al. [17] studied the starting pressure
gradient for Bingham fluid in a special dual porosity medium with
randomly distributed fractal-like tree network embedded in matrix
porous media. Most recently, Zheng and Yu [18] investigated gas
flow characteristics in the dual porosity medium with randomly
distributed fractal-like tree networks. However, the fractal-like
tree network is a kind of ideal and symmetrical network.
The purpose of the present work is to derive an analytical
expression and establish a model for permeability of fracture
rocks/media based on the parallel plane model (cubic law) and frac-
tal geometry theory. The proposed permeability and the predicted
fracture density will be compared with the numerical simulations.
2. Fractal characteristics for fracture networks
Many investigators [3,9–13,19–23] reported that the relation-
ships between the length and the number of fractures exhibit the
power-law, exponential and log-normal types. Torabi and Berg
[19] made a comprehensive review on fault dimensions and their
scaling laws, and they summarized several types of scaling laws
such as the length distributions for faults and fractures in siliciclas-
tic rocks from different scales and tectonic settings. The power-law
exponents of the scaling-law between the fault length and the
number of faults were found to be in the range of 1.02–2.04 and
are probably influenced by factors such as stress regime, linkage
of faults, sampling bias, and size of the dataset. Interested readers
may consult Refs. [3,9–13,19–23] for detail.
In addition, the self-similar fractal structures of fracture net-
works were extensively studied [22,23], and the application in
complex rock structures with the fractal technique was recently
reviewed by Kruhl [24]. Velde et al. [25] and Vignes-Adler et al.
[26] studied the data at several length scales with fractal method
and found that the fracture networks are fractal. Barton and Zoback
[27] analyzed the 2D maps of the trace length of fractures spanning
ten orders, ranging from micro to large scale fractures and found
that Df = 1.3–1.7.
The width between two plates/walls of a fracture, i.e. the paral-
lel plate model is used to represent the effective aperture of a frac-
ture. Generally, the relationship between the effective aperture a
and the fracture length l is given by [28,29]
n
a ¼ bl
where b and n are the proportionality coefficient and a constant
according to fracture scales, respectively. The value of n = 1 is
important, which indicates a linear scaling law, and the fracture
network is self-similarity and fractal [19,29]. Thus, in the current
work the value of n = 1 is chosen for fractures with fractal
characteristic.
Thus, Eq. (1) can be rewritten as
a ¼ bl
Eq. (2) will be used in this work.
It is well-known that the cumulative size distribution of islands
on the Earth’s surface obeys the fractal scaling law [30]
NðS > sÞ / sD=2
where N is the total number of island of area S greater than s, and D
is the fractal dimension for the size distribution of islands. The
equality in Eq. (3a) can be invoked by using smax to represent the
largest island on Earth to yield [31]
s D=2
max
NðS > sÞ ¼
s gasket but also for statistically self-similar fractal porous media.
Eq. (3b) implies that there is only one largest island on the
Earth’s surface, and Majumdar and Bhushan [31] used this
power-law equation to describe the contact spots on engineering
surfaces, where smax ¼ gk2max (the maximum spot area) and
s ¼ gk2 (a spot area), with k being the diameter of a spot and g
being a geometry factor.
It has been shown that the length distribution of fractures sat-
isfies the fractal scaling law [3,9–13,19,22,23,32], hence, Eq. (3b)
for description of islands on the Earth’s surface and spots on engi-
neering surfaces can be extended to describe the area distribution
of fractures on a fractured surface, i.e.
 D =2
amax lmax f
NðS  sÞ ¼ ð3cÞ
al
where amaxlmax represents the maximum fracture area with amax
and lmax respectively being the maximum aperture and maximum
fracture length, and al refers to a fracture area with the aperture
and length being a and l, respectively.
Inserting Eq. (2) into Eq. (3c), we obtain
!Df =2
2
blmax
NðS  sÞ ¼ 2
ð3dÞ
bl
Then, from Eq. (3d), the cumulative number of fractures whose
length are greater than or equal to l can be expressed by the follow-
ing scaling law:
 Df
lmax
NðL  lÞ ¼ ð4Þ
l
where Df is the fractal dimension for fracture lengths, 0 < Df < 2 (or
3) in two (or three) dimensions; and Eq. (4) implies that there is
only one fracture with the maximum length. Some investigators
[3,9–13,19,32] reported that the length distribution of fractures in
rocks has the self-similarity and the fractal scaling law can be
D
described by N / Cl f , where C is a fitting constant, Df is the fractal
dimension for the length (l) distribution of fractures and N is the
number of fractures, and this fractal scaling law is similar to Eq.
(4). Eq. (4) is also the base of the box-counting method [33] for mea-
suring the fractal dimension of fracture lengths in fracture net-
works, and Chelidze and Guguen [9] applied the box-counting
method and found that the fractal dimension of fracture network
(described by Nolen-Hoeksema and Gordon [34]) in a 2D cross sec-
tion is 1.6.
Since there usually are numerous fractures in fracture net-
ð1Þ works, Eq. (4) can be considered as a continuous and differentiable
function. So, differentiating Eq. (4) with respect to l, we can get the
number of fractures whose lengths are in the infinitesimal rang l to
l + dl:
D ðDf þ1Þ
dNðlÞ ¼ Df lmax
f
l dl ð5Þ
Eq. (5) indicates that the number of fractures decreases with the
increase of fracture length and dN(l) > 0.
The relationship among the fractal dimension, porosity and the
ð2Þ ratio kmax =kmin for porous media was derived based on the assump-
tion that pores in porous media are in the form of squares with
self-similarity in sizes in the self similarity range from the mini-
mum size kmin to the maximum size kmax , i.e. [35]
ð3aÞ ln e
Df ¼ dE þ ð6Þ
lnðkmax =kmin Þ
where e is the effective porosity of a fractal porous medium, dE is the
Euclid dimension, and dE = 2 and 3 respectively in two and three
dimensions. It has been shown that Eq. (6) is valid not only for
exactly self-similar fractals such as Sierpinski carpet and Sierpinski
ð3bÞ
Fractures in rocks or in fractured media are analogous to pores
in porous media. Therefore, Eq. (6) can be extended to describe the
 T. Miao et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2015) 75–80 77

relationship among the fractal dimension for length distribution, Inserting Eq. (7) into Eq. (13a), the fracture density can also be
porosity of fractures and the ratio lmax/lmin of fractures in rocks, i.e. written as
ln / " 1Df
#
Df ¼ dE þ ð7Þ 2Df
lnðlmax =lmin Þ ð2  Df Þ 1  ð/Þ /

where lmax and lmin are the maximum and the minimum fracture D¼ ð13bÞ
ð1  Df Þblmax ð1  /Þ
lengths, respectively, and / is the effective porosity of fractures in
a rock. It is evident that the fracture density D of fractures is a function
The area porosity / of fractures is defined as of the fractal dimension Df for fracture area, area porosity /,
proportionality coefficient b and lmax.
AP Fig. 2 compares the predictions by the present fractal model
/¼ ð8Þ
A (Eq. (13a)) with numerical simulations of four groups of random
where A is the area of a unit cell, AP is the total area of all fractures fracture networks by Zhang and Sanderson [36], who proposed a
in the unite cell. new numerical method for producing the self-avoiding random
Based on Eq. (5), the total area of all fractures in the unite cell generations, and the parameters such as the lengths of fractures
can be obtained as can be controlled. In their simulations, the lengths of fractures lie
Z 2
"  2Df # from 0.0005 to 1.5 m, and the averaged fractal dimension Df is
lmax
bDf lmax lmin 1.3. So, in this work we take the maximum length and minimum
Ap ¼  a  l  dNðlÞ ¼ 1 ð9Þ
lmin 2  Df lmax length of fractures are 1.5 m and 0.0005 m, respectively, and the
averaged fractal dimension Df = 1.3. The average porosity / is
Inserting Eq. (7) into Eq. (9) yields
0.018 calculated by Eq. (7). It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the pre-
2 dictions are in good agreement with the numerical simulations.
bDf lmax
Ap ¼ ð1  /Þ ð10Þ Fig. 2 clearly indicates that the fracture density increases with
2  Df
the increase of the fractal dimension, and this is consistent with
where porosity / is applied in Eq. (7) in two dimensions, i.e. dE = 2 is practical situation.
used. Fig. 3 presents the fracture density versus porosity of fracture
networks as lmax = 1.5 m, b = 0.01. It can be seen from Fig. 3 that
3. Relationship between fracture density and fractal dimension the fracture density increases with porosity. This can be explained
that the pore area of fractures increasing with porosity means that
The total fracture lengths in a unit cell of area A can be obtained the fracture density increases with porosity. This result is in agree-
by ment with the Monte Carlo simulations by Yazdi et al. [37].
Z "  1Df #
lmax
Df lmax lmin
ltotal ¼  l  dNðlÞ ¼ 1 ð11Þ 4. Fractal model for permeability of fractured rocks
lmin 1  Df lmax

The fracture density is defined by [36] The orientation of each fracture in fracture networks is defined
by two angles, the fracture azimuth and fracture dip angle, which
ltotal
D¼ ð12Þ significantly affect the flow and transport properties. The orienta-
A tions of fractures in a fracture network are non-uniform, but usu-
where ltotal is the total length of all fractures (not a single fracture) ally with a preferred orientation [38,39]. In general, the number
which may be connected to form a network in the unit cell. of fractures in fracture networks is very large. Based on general
Inserting Eqs. (7), (8) and (11) into Eq. (12) results in the practice, the fracture azimuths of all fractures are taken as aver-
fracture density aged/mean angle, for instance, Massart et al. [40] showed a mean
  1Df  dip angle of 70°, mean N–S (North–South) orientation from the
ð2  Df Þ/ 1  llmax
min
total number of 1878 fractures. In this work, the mean dip angle
D¼   2Df  ð13aÞ of fractures between fracture orientations and fluid flow direction,
ð1  Df Þblmax 1  llmax
min and the mean azimuth of fractures perpendicular to fluid flow
direction are assumed to be h and a, respectively (see Fig. 1(a)).

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. (a) A single fracture orientation in the three-dimensional space and cutting the structural unit, where X-axis and Y-axis is Cartesian coordinates on the horizontal
plane, and X-axis along the flow direction. h is the fracture plane dip angle with the Horizontal plane, and a is the fracture azimuth between strike line and Y-axis direction.
(b) A single fracture in a representative structural unit, where l is the fracture trace length, a is the fracture aperture, Lt is the fracture cutting depth in a medium, h is the
fracture plane dip angle with respect to the fluid flow direction at a = 0.
78 T. Miao et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2015) 75–80

25 50
Eq.(13a) β=0.028
20 group A 40
group B
group C
D (m/m )

D(m/m )
2

2
15 30
group D

10 20

5 10

0 0
1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
Df φ
Fig. 3. The fracture density versus porosity at lmax = 1.5 m, b = 0.01.
Fig. 2. A comparison between the present fractal model predictions and numerical
simulation results [36]. Groups A–D corresponds to four differently simulated
fracture networks.
that the flow rate is very sensitive to the maximum fracture length
lmax.
Therefore, the scalar quantity of permeability along flow direction Darcy’s law for Newtonian fluid flow in porous media is given
needs to be calculated. by
If fluid flow through fractures is assumed to be laminar flow, the KA DP
flow rate along the flow direction through a fracture can be Q¼ ð19Þ
l L0
described by the famous cubic law [41,42]
Comparing Eq. (18) to Eq. (19), we can obtain the permeability for
a3 l DP
qðlÞ ¼ ð14Þ Newtonian fluid flow through the fracture networks as
12l L0  
2 2
where L0 is the length of the structural unit, l is the fracture trace b3 Df 1  cos a sin h 4
K¼ lmax ð20Þ
length, a is the fracture aperture, and DP is the pressure drop across 128A 4  Df
a fracture along flow direction.
Inserting Eqs. (12) and (13b) into Eq. (20), the permeability for
If the single fracture forms an angle with the flow direction, due
Newtonian fluid flow through fracture networks can be written as
to the projection on the flow direction of the fracture, the flow rate  
through the fracture can be written by [43,44] 3 2 2
b3 D 1  Df lmax 1  cos a sin h
  K¼ " # ð21Þ
2
a3 l 1  cos2 a sin h DP 128 4  Df 1Df
2Df
qðlÞ ¼ ð15Þ 1  ð/Þ
12l L0

where a and h are respectively the mean facture azimuth and Eq. (21) shows that the permeability is a function of the fractal
facture dip angle. dimension Df for the fracture length distribution, the structural
When a = 0, Eq. (15) is reduced to parameters (maximum fracture length lmax, fracture density D, fac-
ture azimuth a and facture dip angle h) and fracture porosity / of
a3 l cos2 h DP fracture networks. Eq. (21) also reveals that the permeability
qðlÞ ¼ ð16Þ
12l L0 strongly depends on the maximum fracture length lmax, and the
longer fracture with wider apertures conduct the higher volume
This is the famous Parsons’ model. See Fig. 1(b) [43,44].
of fluid and higher permeability. As a result, the present fractal
The total flow rate through all the fractures can be obtained by
model can well reveal the mechanisms of seepage characteristics
integrating Eq. (16) from the minimum length to the maximum
length in a unit cross section, i.e.
Z lmax 10
-12

Q ¼ qðlÞdNðlÞ
lmin Fractal model
  "
3
2
Df 1  cos2 a sin h DP 4  4Df # Simulation results
b lmin
¼ lmax 1  ð17Þ 10
-13
128l 4  Df L0 lmax
K (m )
2

where Df represents the fractal dimension for the length distribu-

tion of fractures. In general, lmin < < lmax. Since 0 < Df < 2 in two -14
4D 10
dimensions, and ðlmin =lmax Þ f << 1, so that Eq. (17) can be
simplified as:
 
2 2
b3 Df 1  cos a sin h DP 4 -15
Q¼ l ð18Þ 10
128l 4  Df L0 max 1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8 1.85 1.9
D
f
Eq. (18) indicate that the total flow rate through the fracture net-
work is related to the fractal dimension Df of the fracture lengths, Fig. 4. A comparison between the present model predictions with the available
the facture azimuth a and facture dip angle h. Eq. (18) also indicates simulation results [49] at b = 0.002.
 T. Miao et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 81 (2015) 75–80 79

x 10
-12 method, and then they calculated the equivalent fracture network
2 permeability by a 3D model with a block size of 100  100  10 m
α=0,θ=0 simulated/constructed. The maximum fracture length was taken
α=0,θ=π/6 to be 2 m and dip angle h = 0. In comparison, the fracture density
1.5
α=0,θ=π/3 D and permeability are calculated by procedures 3 and 4, respec-
tively. Fig. 4 shows that the present model predictions are in good
K (m )
2

agreement with the simulation results [49].

1
Fig. 5 depicts the permeability for Newtonian fluid through frac-
ture networks against porosity of fracture networks at different dip
angles at lmax = 10 mm, b = 0.01. It is seen from Fig. 5 that the per-
0.5
meability for fracture networks increases with porosity. This is
consistent with practical situation. From Fig. 5, we can also see that
the permeability decreases as the fracture plane dip angle
0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 increases. This can be explained that a higher fracture plane dip
φ angle leads to an increase of the flow resistance.
Fig. 6 plots the permeability versus the fracture density of the
Fig. 5. Permeability versus porosity of fracture networks at different dip angles at
fracture networks at lmax = 10 mm, a = 0, h = p/4 and b = 0.01. It
lmax = 10 mm and b = 0.01.
suggests that the permeability of the fracture networks increases
with the increases of fracture density. The reason is that when
-15 the fracture density D increases, the area of fracture networks
x 10
6 increases and thus results in increasing the permeability. This
result agrees with the numerical simulation results in Ref. [50].
5

4 6. Conclusions
K(m )
2

3 In this paper, the fractal geometry theory has been applied to

describe the fractal fracture system, and the fractal scaling law
2 for length distribution of fractures and the relationship among
the fractal dimension for fracture length distribution, fracture area
1 porosity and the ratio of the maximum length to the minimum
length of fractures have been proposed. Then, a model for perme-
0 ability of fractured rocks has been derived based on the famous
0 5 10 15 20
cubic law, fractal geometry theory and technique. A novel expres-
D(m/m2) sion for the fracture density has also been proposed based on the
fractal scaling law of length distribution of fractures. The present
Fig. 6. Permeability versus the fracture density of fracture networks at lmax =
10 mm, a = 0, h = p/4 and b = 0.01. results show that the permeability of fracture networks increases
with the increases of porosity and fracture density. Our results
in fracture networks than conventional methods. For example, agree well the available numerical simulations. This verifies the
many investigators proposed fracture network models by assum- validity of the proposed models.
ing that the media have ideal structures such as the parallel frac- It should be point out that the percolation and critical behavior
ture network [4,5,8,45], the orthogonal plane network cracks are not involved in this work. In this paper, we focus on the perme-
[46,47], alternate level matrix layer and fractures [48] etc. The frac- ability that all fractures are assumed to be connected to form frac-
ture network permeability was often expressed as K = /a2/12, ture network, which contributes the permeability of the fracture
where / is fracture porosity and a is fracture aperture. Recently, system. This means that we have ignored the interaction between
Jafari and Babadagli [14] obtained an expression (with several fractures. The permeability after including the interaction and con-
empirical constants) by fractal geometry for fracture networks nectivity between fractures and critical behavior of fractures near
according to the well logging and observation data. Therefore, it the threshold undoubtedly is an interesting topic, and this may
is clear that Eq. (21) has the obvious advantages over the conven- be our next work
tional models/methods.

5. Results and discussion Conflict of interest

In this section, the model predictions will be compared with the None declared.
simulated data and the effects of model parameters on the perme-
ability will be discussed. The procedures for determination of the
Acknowledgment
relevant parameters in Eq. (21) are as follows:

(1) Given the fracture network parameters (such as lmax, /, a, h
and b) based on a real sample.
(2) Find the fractal dimension Df of fracture lengths in a fracture
network by the box-counting method or by Eq. (7).
(3) Determine the fracture density D by Eq. (13b).
(4) Finally, calculate the permeability by Eq. (21).
Jafari and Babadagli [49] obtained the fractal dimensions Df of 2D
maps from 22 different nature fracture networks by box-counting
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China through Grant Number 10932010.
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