Fluid flow in fractured and fracturing porous media: A unified view

Fluid flow in fractures that pre-exist or propagate in a porous medium can have a major influence on the deformation and flow characteristics. With the aim of carrying out large-scale calculations at reasonable computing costs, a sub-grid scale model has been developed. While this model was originally embedded in extended finite element methods, thereby exploiting some special properties of the enrichment functions, we will herein show that, using proper micro–macro relations, in particular for the mass balance, sub-grid scale models can be coupled to a range of discretisation methods at the macroscopic scale, from standard interface elements to isogeometric finite element analysis.