The brittleness index in hydraulic fracturing

We present a new definition of a brittleness index which is used as a criterion for candidate selection of rock intervals for hydraulic fracturing. The new index is a combination of material strength parameters and insitu stresses. It was derived from an analytical model of hydraulic fracturing in weak formations of varying ductility. The model is based on Mohr-Coulomb dislocations that are placed in the effective centres of the complete slip process that is distributed around the crack tip. The new brittleness index varies between 0 and 1 with the one limit to correspond to brittle propagation and the other limit to a fracture that requires infinite energy release per unit advance. The values between 0 and 1 correspond to fracture propagation of increasing ductility from brittle to small scale and finally to large scale yielding. The results are particularly interesting for predicting the propagation of axial fractures in the horizontal direction and their confinement in the vertical direction