Characterization of the flow for a single fluid in an excavation damaged zone

The aim of this Note is to quantify the change of characteristics of the media of an Excavated Damaged Zone (EDZ) affected by several fractures. For this, we consider Darcy flow through matrix blocks and fractures with permeability of order ε²δ^θ and 1 respectively. ε is the size of a typical porous block, δ representing the relative size of the fracture and θ is a parameter characterising the permeability ratio. We derive the global behavior from the limit as ε and δ tend to zero. The resulting homogenized equation is of dual-porosity type for θ=2, but it is a simple-porosity model with effective coefficients for θ>2, and there is no flow at the macroscopic level when 0<θ<2. To cite this article: B. Amaziane et al., C. R. Mecanique 332 (2004).