  A model function relating effective stress to fracture permeability is
developed from Hooke's law, implemented in the tensorial form of Darcy's law,
and used to evaluate discharge rates and pressure distributions at regional
scales. The model takes into account elastic and statistical fracture
parameters, and is able to simulate real stress-dependent permeabilities from
laboratory to field studies. This modeling approach gains in phenomenology in
comparison to the classical ones because the permeability tensors may vary in
both strength and principal directions according to effective stresses.
Moreover this method allows evaluation of the fracture porosity changes, which
are then translated into consolidation of the medium.
