ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Earth Sci.
Sec. Solid Earth Geophysics
This article is part of the Research TopicFrontiers in Borehole Multi-Geophysics: Innovations and ApplicationsView all 12 articles
A Novel Brittleness Evaluation Method for Shale Based on Nonlinear Weighting of Mineral Composition: A Case Study of the Qiongzhusi Formation in Southwestern Sichuan Basin
Provisionally accepted
- 1China University of Petroleum Beijing, Karamay Campus, Karamay, China
- 2Shenli well logging Company, Sinopec, Doying, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Accurate assessment of shale brittleness is crucial for identifying optimal development zones, directly impacting the effectiveness of fracturing stimulation and production forecasting. To address the ambiguity regarding the influence of different mineral components on brittleness in current mineral-based evaluation approaches, this study employs the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to quantify the brittleness contribution coefficients of diverse minerals based on their distinct physical properties. Moreover, the study considers the nonlinear correlation between mineral content and shale brittleness to enhance the existing mineral-based brittleness index model. Application of this refined model to the Qiongzhusi Formation shale in the southwestern Sichuan Basin reveals a reduction of approximately 34% in the mean relative error compared to traditional methods, demonstrating improved capture of vertical brittleness variations. This model effectively characterizes the vertical variability of shale reservoir brittleness, offering a straightforward construction process, broad applicability, and essential data support for subsequent comprehensive geological and engineering assessments.
Keywords: Brittleness evaluation3, Elastic parameters2, Mineral composition1, Qiongzhusi Formation5, Shale reservoir4
Received: 31 Oct 2025; Accepted: 12 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Xie, Ma, Ren, Yin and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Weibiao Xie
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.