Influence of geostatic stresses on permeability of jointed rock masses

In this paper, a new constitutive model for the deformation of rock discontinuities in a geostress field is proposed, the permeability tensor with consideration of coupled hy-dromechanical behaviour of jointed rock masses is formulated. It is found that the influ-ence of geostatic stresses on the permeability of jointed rock masses is caused mainly by af-fecting the aperture of discontinuities and the flow paths in discontinuity networks; the hydraulic conductivity of jointed rock masses decreases in negative exponential relationwith the increase of embedded depth and in hyperbolic relation with the increase of lateral pressure coefficient. The theory of hydromechanical coupling is applicable in the study of reservoir induced earthquake.