A Singular Perturbation Problem in Fractured Media With Parallel Diffusion

Abstract

We study differential equations that model contaminant flow in a semi-infinite, fractured, porous medium consisting of a single fracture channel bounded by a porous matrix. Models in the literature usually do not incorporate diffusion in the porous matrix in the direction parallel to the fracture, and therefore they must omit a no-flux boundary condition at the edge, which, in some problems, may be unphysical. Herein we show that the problem usually treated in the literature is the outer problem for a correctly posed singular perturbation problem which includes diffusion in both directions as well as the no-flux boundary condition.