Modeling of rock inhomogeneity and anisotropy by explicit and implicit representation of microcracks
Fracture in rock as a heterogeneous brittle material, having significant inherent randomness, requires including probabilistic considerations at different scales. Crack growth in rocks is generally associated with complex features such as crack path oscillations, microcrack and crack branching events. Two methods will be presented to address rock inhomogeneity and anisotropy. First, microcracks are explicitly realized in a domain based on specific statistics of crack length and location. Second, a statistical model is used to implicitly represent an inhomogeneous field for fracture strength. Both approaches can be used for rocks in which the natural fractures are oriented in a specific angle, i.e. an aspect for modeling bedding planes in sedimentary rocks.
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