Building Discrete Fracture Networks From Ground Based LiDAR Data
Abstract
Simulations which employ Discrete Fracture Networks (DFN's) offer one of the most accurate methods to model the flow of fluids within fractured reservoirs/aquifers. Geometries and spacings of fractures in many DFN's are often stochastically generated using statistical distributions gathered from one- and two-dimensional data. Ground based LiDAR surveys of large fractured outcrops may improve the construction of DFN's by providing highly accurate three-dimensional (3D) measurements of fracture spacing and geometry. We have constructed a 3D DFN based upon the cross-cutting/abutting relationships of fracture sets observed in outcrop and a semi- automated method which uses differential geometry to extract fracture planes from a three-dimensional point cloud.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007AGUFM.G51B0437W
- Keywords:
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- 1209 Tectonic deformation (6924);
- 1294 Instruments and techniques;
- 1295 Integrations of techniques;
- 1625 Geomorphology and weathering (0790;
- 1824;
- 1825;
- 1826;
- 1886)