• Tunnel and Underground Space
• /
• v.8 no.4
• /
• pp.275-286
• /
• 1998

The effective permeability and the representative element volume(REV) of fracture network model were evaluated based on the parameters such as permeability tensor, principal permeability and the direction of principal permeability. The effective permeability ranges between the harmonic mean and the arithmetic mean of the local permeabilities of subdivided blocks. From the numerical experiments, which were for investigating the influence of model volume on the variation of flux for the cubic models, it was found that the variation of flux became reduced as the model volume approached REV. The variation of groundwater flux into the tunnel in the fracture network model was mainly dependent on the ratio of the tunnel length to model size rather than REV. And it was found that groundwater flux into the tunnel was not completely consistent between the fracture network model and the equivalent porous media model, especially when the ratio of the tunnel length to model size is small.