Both the beauty and interest of fractures and fracture networks are easy to grasp, since they are abundant in nature. An example is the road from Digne to Nice in the south of France, with an impressive number and variety of such structures: the road for the most part, goes through narrow valleys with fast running streams penetrating the rock faces; erosion is favored by the Mediterranean climate, so that rocks are barely covered by meager vegetation. In this inhospitable and sterile landscape, the visitor can im- mediately discover innumerable fractures in great masses which have been...

The study of multiphase flow through porous media is undergoing intense development, mostly due to the recent introduction of new methods. After the profound changes induced by percolation in the eighties, attention is nowadays focused on the pore scale. The physical situation is complex and only recently have tools become available that allow significant progress to be made in the area.
This volume on Multiphase Flow in Porous Media, which is also being published as a special issue of the journal Transport in Porous Media, contains contributions on the...

This book provides a systematic treatment of the geometrical and transport properties of fractures, fracture networks, and fractured porous media.
It is divided into two major parts. The first part deals with geometry of individual fractures and of fracture networks. The use of the dimensionless density rationalizes the results for the percolation threshold of the networks. It presents the crucial advantage of grouping the numerical data for various fracture shapes.
The second part deals mainly with permeability under steady conditions of fractures, fracture networks, and fractured...