SUMMARYOne of the major difficulties of modelling fluid flow processes in hard-rock geologies is the complex nature of the porosity systems. Hydraulic behaviour in these rock masses is characterized by both porous and fractured interflow zones. Traditionally, fractured-porous rocks have been modelled as an equivalent porous medium or as a system of fractures separated by impermeable blocks. A new method is proposed that unifies these two approaches for modelling fluid flow processes in fractured-porous media. The basic idea is to use a combination of isdparametric elements for the porous zones and line elements for the fractures. The coupling between the governing equations for each element type is achieved using the superposition principle. The effectiveness of the new approach is demonstrated by comparing numerical solutions with known solutions for problems of flow and solute transport in fractured-porous media.

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