A systematic approach has been developed to estimate the relationship between the permeability and connectivity of two‐dimensional fracture networks, in which the network connectivity is evaluated with the concept of geological entropy as informative index of spatial disorder. The geological entropy is quantified by the entropic scale, a metric developed by Bianchi and Pedretti (2018), which is here applied to integrate multiple properties of two‐dimensional fracture networks, including aperture, spacing, length, orientation. Through the comparisons among several existing connectivity indicators including the entropic scale in an illustrative example, only the entropic scale is positively correlated with the permeability concerning aperture and can be successfully used to quantify the network connectivity. In order to understand connectivity characteristics dependence of the permeability, a computational method combining fracture network generation and steady‐state flow simulation is developed. Based on the results of detailed numerical simulations considering hydraulic behavior and connectivity characteristic in various fracture networks, the entropic scale and permeability are simultaneously inversely proportional to length and proportional to spacing with the same global entropy, but exhibit weak dependence on the orientation variation. A simple closed‐form empirical expression in terms of quadratic polynomial model between the permeability and entropic scale is proposed. The results indicated that geological entropy is valid and appropriate to quantify the connectivity and predict the permeability of two‐dimensional fracture networks.

Fracture-dominated flow in fractured rocks is of interest in many areas of scientific and technical research. In contrast to the continuum approach, this study employed a discrete fracture model method to analyze water movement in unsaturated fractured rocks, in which the flow behavior for single fractures is governed by Darcy’s law and the Richards equation, and the partial differential equations defined on the whole fracture network domain were formulated. A systematic finite-element algorithm was developed along with a corresponding numerical procedure. The results for the porous medium indicate that the proposed method is valid. Good agreement was found between the numerical predictions and experimental observations, and thus the equivalent discrete fracture network model may be used in place of the continuum model. The infiltration seepage analysis in a fractured rock slope demonstrated that the distribution of fracture-dominated flow was heterogeneous and that the movement of variably satur...

Evaluation of immiscible two-phase quasi-static displacement flow in rough fractures using LBM simulation: Effects of roughness and wettability