Finite-element harmonic experiments to model fractured induced anisotropy in poroelastic media

These numerical upscaling experiments are defined as boundary value problems on representative samples of the fractured material, with boundary conditions associated with compressibility and shear tests, which are solved using the finite element (FE) method. The FE space chosen to discretize each component of the solid displacement vector is that of globally continuous piecewise bilinear functions, while for the fluid phase the vector part of the Raviart-Thomas-Nedelec space of zero order is employed. We present results on the uniqueness of the solution of the continuous and discrete problems, and derive optimal a priori energy error estimates. First, the numerical results are validated with those of a theory valid for fluid flow perpendicular to the fracture layering and independent of the loading direction, so that the attenuation mechanism can be represented by a single relaxation function. Then, the methodology is applied to cases for which no analytical solutions are available, such as a fractured Biot medium saturated with brine and patches of CO2 and a brine saturated sample of uniform background and fractures with fractal variations in their petrophysical properties.