Enriched finite elements for branching cracks in deformable porous media. (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sheng, Mao; Li, Gensheng; Shah, Subhash; Lamb, Anthony R.; Bordas, Stéphane P.A.
• Is Part Of: Engineering analysis with boundary elements. Volume 50(2015:Jan.)
• Page Start: 435
• Page End: 446
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: Crack -- Porous media -- Finite element method; Boundary element methods -- Periodicals; Engineering mathematics -- Periodicals; Équations intégrales de frontière, Méthodes des -- Périodiques; Mathématiques de l'ingénieur -- Périodiques; Boundary element methods; Engineering mathematics; Periodicals; 620.00151
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enganabound.2014.09.010
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0955-7997

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, we propose and verify a numerical approach to simulate fluid flow in deformable porous media without requiring the discretization to conform to the geometry of the sealed fractures (possibly intersecting). This approach is based on a fully coupled hydro-mechanical analysis and an extended finite element method (XFEM) to represent discrete fractures. Convergence tests indicate that the proposed scheme is both consistent and stable. The contributions of this paper include: (1) a new junction enrichment to describe intersecting fractures in deformable porous media; (2) the treatment of sealed fractures. We employ the resulting discretization scheme to perform numerical experiments, to illustrate that the inclination angles of the fractures and the penetration ratio of the sealed fractures are two key parameters governing the flow within the fractured porous medium.