STEREOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF FRACTURE NETWORKS ALONG CYLINDRICAL GALLERIES

Abstract

The intersections between three-dimensional fracture networks consisting of constant- and variable-size disks with a gallery were systematically analyzed. Exact and approximate analytical formulae were derived for the numbers of partial or full intersections. These predictions were verified by Monte Carlo simulations. Trace length distributions were studied by numerical techniques for various disk distributions. These simulations showed that differences between various disk distributions are very small when trace length distributions with the same average and standard deviations are compared.