  The equivalent permeability of a randomly cracked porous material is studied
using a finite element program in which a four-nodes zero-thickness element is
implemented for modelling the cracks. The numerical simulations are performed
for geometries with different cracks densities and for different values of
matrix permeability and cracks conductivity, but the cracks length are taken
equal to one. The method used for determination of the equivalent permeability
resulted in a perfectly symmetric equivalent permeability tensor for each case.
Based on the obtained results a simple relation is presented for the equivalent
permeability of a randomly cracked porous material as a function of the matrix
permeability and the cracks density and conductivity. This relation is then
generalized for the cracks of any length using a linear transformation.
