Algorithms and their optimization for identification of the connected flow paths for 3D fracture networks in fractured rocks

The fractured rock,one of the major types of seepage media for groundwater flow,exists widely in the shallow layers of the earth.It is commonly realized that fracture networks in fractured rocks constitute the main or the unique flow path for groundwater flow and solute transport.Based on the graph theory,the fracture network transporting groundwater was conceptualized as the unconnected graph,in which the algorithms of data structures were applied to storing and organizing the data of the stochastically distributed fractures.A computer program was developed to identify the flow paths along the groundwater flow gradient in fractured rocks and remove the disconnected fractures from the network.Consequently,computation efficiency can be then significantly increased for the identification and numerical simulations of groundwater flow and solute transport become more practicable at a large field scale.