Rock fractures are crucial conduits for fluid flow in fractured rock masses. Three-dimensional (3D) discrete fracture network (DFN) modeling approach, which can explicitly characterize the fracture and its network arrangement, has been increasingly utilized in various engineering applications. This paper presents a review of the development and application of 3D DFNs for modeling naturally fractured rocks. The issues relating to generation, discretization and flow calculation of 3D DFNs are investigated. Extensions to modeling multiphase flow in discrete-fractured media using DFNs are also considered. This work can help researchers to recognize previous achievements on 3D DFNs and identify potential future works.

岩石破裂是裂隙岩体中流体流动的关键管道。可以明确表征裂缝及其网络布置的三维（3D）离散裂缝网络（DFN）建模方法已在各种工程应用中得到越来越多的利用。本文介绍了用于天然裂缝岩石建模的3D DFN的开发和应用综述。研究了与3D DFN的生成，离散化和流量计算有关的问题。还考虑了使用DFN扩展对离散裂缝介质中的多相流建模的扩展。这项工作可以帮助研究人员认识3D DFN的先前成就并确定潜在的未来作品。