Learning

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Software Tutorials

PFC 7 Generating A Bonded Assembly

This tutorial will guide you through how to create a simple material using the linear parallel bond-model.

FLAC3D 7 Zone Plotting Tutorial

This tutorial will show how to create and manipulate zone plot items for showing model attributes and results.

FLAC3D 7.0 Structured Mesh Tutorial

A tutorial showing how to create a structured mesh in FLAC3D 7.0 using the extruder pane.

Technical Papers

Flowback Test Analyses at the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) Site

Injection testing conducted in 2017 and 2019 at the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) site in Utah evaluated flowback as an alternative to prolonged shut-in periods to infer closure stress, formation compressibility, and formation permeability. Flowback analyses yielded lower inferred closure stresses than traditional shut-in methods and indicated high formation compressibility, suggesting an extensive fractured system. Numerical simulations showed rebound pressure is not necessarily the lower bound of minimum principal stress. Stiffness changes can be identified as depletion transitions from hydraulic to natural fractures. The advantage if flowback is reduced time to closure.

Mine Dewatering in a Compartmentalized Hydrogeologic Setting at Sishen Mine in South Africa

Sishen mine in South Africa is one of the largest open-pit iron mines in the world.

Connectivity, permeability, and channeling in randomly distributed and kinematically defined discrete fracture network models

A major use of DFN models for industrial applications is to evaluate permeability and flow structure in hardrock aquifers from geological observations of fracture networks. The relationship between the statistical fracture density distributions and permeability has been extensively studied, but there has been little interest in the spatial structure of DFN models, which is generally assumed to be spatially random (i.e., Poisson). In this paper, we compare the predictions of Poisson DFNs to new DFN models where fractures result from a growth process defined by simplified kinematic rules for nucleation, growth, and fracture arrest.

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