The intrinsic permeability of microcracks in porous solids: Analytical models and Lattice Boltzmann simulations

The paper presents a synthesis of analytical modeling and computational simulations of the intrinsic permeability of microcracks, embedded in porous materials taking into account the interaction of the fluid flow in the microcrack with the surrounding porous material. In the first part of the paper, using the DARCY, STOKES, BRINKMAN, and the BEAVERS–JOSEPH approximations, we derive the intrinsic permeability of a plain non-rough microcrack in terms of the microcrack geometry and the permeability of the porous material surrounding the microcrack. In the second part of the paper, the intrinsic permeability of a microcrack is determined by means of computational simulations using the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method with partial bounceback conditions. The comparison of predictions from the analytical model and the numerical simulations show an excellent agreement.