Estimation of 2-D and 3-D Fracture Densities from 1-D Data - Experimental and Field Results

2-D and 3-D densities of fractures are commonly used in mining safety design, natural gas and oil production in fractured reservoirs, and the characterization of subsurface flow and transportation systems in fractured rocks. However, many field data sets are collected in 1-D frequency (f) (e.g., scanlines and borehole data). We have developed an ARC/ INFO-based technology to calculate fracture frequency and densities for a given fracture network. A series of numerical simulations are performed in order to determine the optimal orientation of a scanline, along which the maximum fracture frequency of a fracture network can be obtained. We calculated the frequency (f) and densities (both D1 and D2) of 36 natural fracture trace maps, and investigated the statistical relationship between fracture frequency and fracture density D1, i.e. D1=1.340f+ 0.034. We derived analytical solutions for converting dimensional density (D1) to non-dimensional densities (D2 and D3) assuming that fracture length distribution f