Hydraulic conductivity and mechanical stiffness tensors for variably saturated true anisotropic intact rock matrices, joints, joint sets, and jointed rock masses

Abstract

A series of global hydraulic conductivity and mechanical stiffness tensors for variably saturated true anisotropic intact rock matrices, joints, joint sets, and jointed rock masses is formulated to expand the fully coupled poroelastic governing equations presented by Kim (2004) for groundwater flow and solid skeleton deformation in porous geologic media to those for fractured and fractured porous geologic media. The global hydraulic conductivity tensors are derived from the local hydraulic conductivity tensors using coordinate transformation on the basis of the generalized Darcy’s law. The global mechanical stiffness tensors are then derived from the local or global mechanical compliance tensors using coordinate transformation on the basis of the generalized Hooke’s law.