We present a fully coupled model of fluid flow in jointed rock, where the fluid flow depends on the joint openings and the joint openings depend on the fluid pressure. The joints and rock blocks are modeled discretely using the finite element method. Solutions for the fluid and rock are obtained and iteration is performed until both solutions converge. Example applications include an examination of the effects of back-pressure on flow in a geothermal reservoir and transient fluid injection into a reservoir.

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Copyright 1991, Stanford Geothermal Program: Readers who download papers from this site should honor the copyright of the original authors and may not copy or distribute the work further without the permission of the original publisher.