Modelling fluid flow through fractured reservoirs: Is it different from conventional classical porous medium?

Two-thirds of peninsular India being composed of hard rocks, a thorough understanding of fluid flow through fractured aquifers becomes inevitable in order to address groundwater recharge and contaminant transport problems, and subsequently to deduce better groundwater management decisions. In this context, an attempt has been made to clearly delineate fundamental differences associated with conceptual modelling of fluid flow through a fractured reservoir from that of conventional classical porous medium. The differences deduced from this study convey that fluid flow through a fractured reservoir deserves special attention and its associated fluid flow analysis cannot be simplified using conventional Darcy-based approach. Further, a brief discussion on the upscaling issues associated with the fractured reservoir is given and the study demonstrates that the upscaling issues associated with a classical porous medium cannot be directly applied to analyse fluid flow through a fractured reservoir.