Elastic Properties of Rocks With Multiple Sets of Fractures

Recent work on equivalent elastic medium theory is modified and extended beyond fine-layered anisotropic rocks to include multiple sets of fractures, each lying in any plane. The group-theoretic structure is still basic, but group elements are now in terms of compliances rather than stiffnesses, and this much simplifies the algebra, and makes the commutative property clear rocks can be fractured in any order. This then leads to a method for modeling the effect of fracture distributions. This new model also provides a unifying framework to compare the several specialized fracture models in the literature. Several simple but physically reasonable examples are given.