Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 122 (2014) 420427

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Dynamic characterization of shale systems by dispersion and

attenuation of P- and S-waves considering their mineral composition
and rock maturity
Oscar C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos n, Rubn Nicols-Lopez
Instituto Mexicano del Petrleo, Eje Central Lzaro Crdenas 152, Delegacin Gustavo A. Madero, 07730 Mxico, DF, Mexico

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 19 November 2013
Accepted 31 July 2014
Available online 12 August 2014

The dynamical elastic effective properties of gasoil shale systems are found by using the self-consistent
method and from them, dispersion and attenuation of P- and S-waves are calculated for a wide range of
frequencies including seismic, sonic and ultrasonic bands. The mathematical model has the virtue of
considering solid and uid inclusions embedded in a matrix solid taking into account the volume
fraction of each one. The mineral composition estimated from geological and petrophysical data is fed
into the theoretical model in order to calculate the effective mechanical properties. The solid frame may
be composed of clay, quartz or carbonate dominated lithotype; and the complement volume is occupied
by pore uids (water, heavy oil or dry gas), kerogen or solid inclusions. From that, typical patterns are
established by the dispersion and attenuation of elastic waves in shale systems considering their
mineralogy and maturity. In the acoustical branch, the results of the modeling have already been
validated with laboratory data. Quartz and carbonate dominated lithologies exhibit very similar elastic
responses and clay dominated lithotype shows a reverse reaction. These results are very useful tools to
analyze and interpret the seismic response of target zones in oil and gas shale formations. Also, they aim
to discriminate: drained, water-saturated, immature, mature or post-mature shale systems.
& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
unconventional reservoirs
shale characterization
effective properties
wave dispersion
wave attenuation
self-consistent method

1. Introduction
An investment project on unconventional reservoirs becomes
successful when the target shale formation produces hydrocarbons at commercial rates (KPMG, 2011; Bustin, 2012; Vawter,
2013). Therefore, it is essential to estimate accurately the quality
and eld distribution of mature and post-mature source rocks
from seismic data. Many efforts are focused on developing methodologies for associating uid saturation and mineralogy data
within the analyses of rock seismic responses at full frequency
band. Thus, well-known geophysics analyses supported by theories of wave propagation are used in the exploration and
development stages. However, to develop analytical solutions
and build up standardized laboratory techniques the complexity
increases when it is required to quantify in situ volume percent of
gasoil shale constituents from the bulk elastic properties or in the
opposite case.
On the one hand, several geoscientists have frequently stressed
the importance of estimating key parameters as the total organic
content, brittleness, maturity and mineralogy of source rocks in

Corresponding author. Tel.: 52 55 9175 7041.

E-mail address: ovaldivi@imp.mx (O.C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2014.07.041
0920-4105/& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

order to properly characterize unconventional reservoirs (Rickman

et al., 2008; Passey et al., 2010; Glorioso and Rattia, 2012; Sun
et al., 2013). On the other hand, there are experimental and
theoretical modeling techniques such as the self-consistent
method, extensively applied on heterogeneous media characterization integrating the analysis of P- and S-waves dispersion and
attenuation (Sabina and Willis, 1988). Furthermore, these sorts of
methods have been extended to thermoelastic analyses of heterogeneous composites (Valdiviezo-Mijangos et al., 2009).
In this work, the self-consistent method has been extended
using laboratory data observed in measurements of frequencydependent P- and S-wave velocities on sedimentary rock samples
(Batzle et al., 2006). Furthermore, this method is used to reconcile
the elastic properties observed at seismic (
3050 Hz), sonic
(
824 kHz) and ultrasonic (
1 MHz) frequencies by a scaling
factor similar to that used in Sams et al. (1997). As a result of the
nonexistence of direct eld measurements of seismic velocity from
source-rock mineralogy, and inconsistent experimental datasets;
herein is followed by a coherent indirect process: (a) forming
mineral composition of the lithotypes from ternary diagrams
based on clay, quartz and carbonate of source rocks, Fig. 1. (b)
Applying a self-consistent scheme briey described in Eqs. (1)(13).
(c) Utilizing the denition of dimensionless frequency
2af =V p ; 0 o o2:5 to conciliate the seismic and ultrasonic

O.C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos, R. Nicols-Lopez / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 122 (2014) 420427

421

Fig. 1. Dispersion and attenuation at different inclusion radiuses used as scaling factor for full-frequency band. (a) Compressional wave velocity, V p . (b) Shear wave velocity,
V s . (c) Compressional wave attenuation, Imkp a. (d) shear wave attenuation, Imks a. (Experimental data were digitalized from Batzle et al. (2006).)

frequency responses (Kinra and Anand, 1982). (d) The results

modeling were validated with seismic velocities measured on
sedimentary rock samples (Batzle et al., 2006). The experimental
data reported were measured 5 Hz2 kHz utilizing stressstrain
approach. Unfortunately, only a data point was calculated using
standard pulse-transmission technique at 0.8 MHz. It is hoped that
the missed data of measured wave velocities would adjust to a
characteristic radius according to Kinra and Anand (1982) and
Sabina and Willis (1988). Even though it is known to measure
wave velocity throughout dispersive bandwidth is very complex.
Also, in Fig. 1, the idea is to depict clearly the dependence between
inclusion radius and frequency. Finally, this process was applied to
three widespread shale plays: clay, quartz and carbonate dominated lithologies to describe the seismic response patterns,
maturity and dynamic elastic properties.

2. Self-consistent equations
The self-consistent equations used in this work were developed
by Sabina and Willis (1988). They generalized the simple static
equation of Budiansky (1965) and Hill (1965) to dynamic problems
using the Galerkin approximation. A few equations are shown
below to understand the complete idea of the method; more
details are presented in Sabina and Willis (1988). Although, shales
could exhibit different geometry shapes dened by aspect ratio
(ar); i.e., ar r0.05 denotes layer, 0.05 oar r0.5 to lenses and
0.5 oar r 1 is for patches (Sone and Zoback, 2013), herein as an
approximation to model shale, the patches are chosen with aspect
ratio equal to 1. The self-consistent equations for an isotropic

matrix containing isotropic spherical inclusion are as follow:

n

C 0 C n 1 r hr khr kC r  C n 1 I Sx   1
r1
n

0 n 1 r hr khr  kr  n 1 I M t   1
r1

where C n 1 is the tensor of elastic moduli and n 1 is the density

of the matrix where different types of inclusions are embedded, an
inclusion of type r having tensor of elastic moduli C r and density
r , r 1; 2; ; n. Each inclusion of type r is of the same size and
shape and n 1 is dened as follows:
n1

r 1:

r1

Both, matrix and inclusion are considered as isotropic, with C r

characterized by bulk modulus r and shear modulus r . The
corresponding symbolic notation used by Hill (1965) is
C r 3 r ; 2r
This is very useful because the product of isotropic two
tensors A and B dened by A 3 A ; 2A and B 3 B ; 2B is
AB 3 A 3B ; 2A 2B . In Appendix A, this fact will be
explained in detail.
The term Sx ; M t and I of Eqs. (1) and (2) are computed from the
Green functions for an isotropic homogeneous media, Eqs. (A6),
(A10), and (A13). Therefore, their denitions are




2V p
V
p
1
4
Sx
;
p
3 0 40 5 30 40 0

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O.C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos, R. Nicols-Lopez / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 122 (2014) 420427

M t ij

1
3  V p  2V s
30 ij

0 2

1 h1 kh1  k1  2
1 21  0 20 V p 3 0 40 V s =50 30 40 
11

16 2 a3
2

3k

 1

6
0 2

where a is the inclusion radius, k = and V p or V s is

required. Eqs. (4) and (5) are dened in Sabina and Willis (1988)
in Eqs. (3.5). The corresponds to Eq. (A7) and it is expressed as

31  ik a
sin k a  k a cos k a eik a
k a3

where


0 40 =3 1=2
Vp
0

and

Vs

0
0

1=2
:

Hence the self-consistent equations with n 1, i.e., for just one

inclusion are
0 2

1 h1 kh1  k 1  2
1 3 1  0 V p =30 4 0

10

1 h1 kh1  k1  2
1 1  0 3  V p  2V s =30

12

where
h1 k

3 sin ka  ka cos ka
ka3

13

Eq. (13) corresponds to Eq. (3.17) in Sabina and Willis (1988) for
a spherical inclusion.
It should be noted that for more than one inclusion, n 4 1,
Eqs. (1) and (2) are used with the properties of the other inclusions to get the whole self-consistent equations. Eqs. (10)(12)
must be solved simultaneously using a numerical method, for
example the xed point. With the effective 0 ; 0 and 0 , it is
possible to calculate the compressional and shear waves (Eqs. (8)
and (9)) as well as their corresponding attenuations. The measure
of attenuation is obtained by Imkp a and Imks a (Auld, 1973;
Sabina and Willis, 1988). More details on how to solve the nonlinear equation systems take into account several inclusions are in
Valdiviezo-Mijangos (2002). In the following section, there are
numerical results about different combinations of shale composition and their maturity with uid inclusions.

Fig. 2. Ternary diagram of the mineral composition for global shale plays. It is based on clay, quartz and carbonate to point out argillaceous (north), siliceous (southwest) and
calcareous (southeast) source rocks, respectively. Brown solid line corresponds to the experimental data adapted from Rickman et al. (2008) and Passey et al. (2010). (For
interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

O.C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos, R. Nicols-Lopez / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 122 (2014) 420427

3. Numerical results and discussion

Notice that the total porosity and saturation are commonly
measured by bulk volume fractions (v/v) and the mineral concentration is always stated by mass fractions (wt%); both types of
petrophysics data are related to the density of pure minerals. In
this work, the modeling of dynamical elastic properties (Figs. 35)
is carried out using bulk volumetric fraction of the shale constituents based on conventional log interpretation. For just one
inclusion the volumetric fraction is easily related to the discriminated layer thickness by length-wave resolution Lr and
inclusion radius as Lr a4=31=3 (Kinra and Anand, 1982),
which is used as a scaling factor throughout full-frequency band.
In order to extend the application of the self-consistent method to
estimate dispersion and attenuation of elastic waves through gasoil
shale systems, herein the laboratory data measured on sedimentary
rock sample is utilized (Batzle et al., 2006; Wang and Sun, 2010). The
typical properties for the Fox Hill sandstone are assumed density
2200 kg/m3, compressional and shear-wave velocities are 3.91 km/s
and 2.21 km/s respectively. The pore volume fraction 25% is fully
saturated with Glycerin density 1260 kg/cm3 and compressional
wave velocity of 1.92 km/s. The numerical results are depicted in
Fig. 1; it shows four sets of graphs against frequency: P-wave (a) and
S-wave (b) velocities and their attenuations calculated as Imkp a
(c) and Imks a (d) respectively. Each simulation result includes three
radii a V p =2f as a scaling factor through frequencies: 0.143 m
(dashed line), 1.43 m (solid line) and 14.3 m (dotted line) which
increases coherently with the wavelength resolutions similar to
Wang and Sun (2010). These simulations were calculated by selfconsistent equations in order to elucidate the relationship between

423

scaling factor and frequency. This methodology is identical to

experimental technique developed by Kinra and Anand (1982, p.
373). For example, when the frequency is 1 kHz the scaling factor is
0.143 m and either frequency is 10 Hz, the corresponding scaling
factor is 14.3 m. This is useful to estimate the thickness of depositional cycles identied by the well-log and stratigraphic succession
analysis. In the dispersive frequency bandwidths, at low frequency,
constant values (V p 3.24 km/s, V s 1.72 km/s) of the wave velocities are observed, next, the curves response slightly decreases and
then it increases as a result of resonance phenomenon and nally
for higher frequencies the velocity moves up toward sandstone wave
velocities. Another important fact is that the frequency associated
with the inection point of the velocity corresponds to the attenuation peak for the P- and S-wave velocities. Moreover, P-wave
attenuation is always greater than S-wave attenuation. Similar results
also were reported in Sabina and Willis (1988). Also, this kind of the
response curve behavior is completely consistent with the results
obtained by a micro-structural dispersion model modied by Wang
and Sun (2010). The complete four sets of curves are only shifted by
the inclusion radiuses a V p =2f for modeling the experimental
data digitalized from Batzle et al. (2006). It outlines the reconciliation
process among wave velocities measured at different frequencies
using seismic, sonic and ultrasonic techniques. Therefore, this sort of
modeling quanties the frequency range for velocity dispersions and
their corresponding attenuation.
After the previous analysis, the results of application of the selfconsistent method considering the mineral composition of the
source rocks, maturity and the type of inclusion embedded
in it. The mineralogy is made out from published ternary diagrams of different commercial shale plays, i.e., Barnett, Eagleford,

Fig. 3. (a) Compressional wave velocity, V p . (b) Shear wave velocity, V s . (c) Compressional wave attenuation, Imkp a. (d) Shear wave attenuation, Imks a. Frequencydependent elastic response of carbonate dominated shale systems at constant inclusion radius. Gasoil shale systems: drained shale, CA(80%) CL(20%); water saturated
shale, CA(80%) CL(5%) QR(5%) WA(10%); immature source rock, CA(80%) CL(10%) KE(10%); two mature source rocks, CA(80%) CL(10%) KE(5%) HO(5%) and CA
(80%) CL(10%) KE(5%) DG(5%); two post-mature source rocks, CA(80%) CL(10%) HO(10%) and CA(80%) CL(10%) DG(10%).

424

O.C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos, R. Nicols-Lopez / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 122 (2014) 420427

Fig. 4. (a) Compressional wave velocity, V p . (b) Shear wave velocity, V p . (c) Compressional wave attenuation, Imkp a. (d) Shear wave attenuation, Imks a. Frequencydependent elastic response of quartz dominated shale systems at constant inclusion radius. Gasoil shale systems: drained shale, QR(80%) CL(20%); water saturated shale,
QR(80%) CL(5%) CA(5%) WA(10%); immature source rock, QR(80%) CL(10%) KE(10%); two mature source rocks, QR(80%) CL(10%) KE(5%) HO(5%) and QR(80%)
CL(10%) KE(5%) DG(5%); two post-mature source rocks, QR(80%) CL(10%) HO(10%) and QR(80%) CL(10%) DG(10%).

Woodford, Marcellous, Muskwa, etc. (Rickman et al., 2008; Passey

et al., 2010). The mineral groups used are mainly represented by
clay (clay, illite, smectite and kaolinite), quartz (quartz, feldspars
and albite) and carbonate (calcite, dolomite and siderite). Fig. 2
shows three different arrangements of lithotypes; each vertex
represents 100% (1.0) of clay, quartz and carbonate. Dominated
lithotypes content more than 80% (0.8) of particular mineral, and
calcareous, siliceous and argillaceous shale formations are identied between 50% and 80% (0.50.8). Mixed mudstones could be
classied in the core of the ternary diagram.
For theoretical modeling of velocity dispersion and attenuation
in gasoil shale systems at various frequency bands (f) considering
their mineralogy and maturity, the main data required are density
(), compressional (Vp) and shear wave (Vs) velocities, Table 1, and
volumetric fraction () of pure constituents; i.e. clay (CL), quartz
(QR), carbonate (CA) and pore uids named as water (WA), heavy
oil (HO) or dry gas (DG). Obviously, whenever possible, its
laboratory measurements will be preferred from available source
rock specimen.
Moreover, the integrated studies of well, sonic and seismic
data, the properly identication and discrimination of shale
systems must be supported by two requirements: the coherent
basis of mineral classication (Fig. 2) and the maturity level
description of source rocks (Table 2). In this work, mineral content
is indicated by volume fractions of clay, quartz and carbonate; and
the maturity is slightly stated by drained, water-saturated, immature, mature and post-mature source rocks. This general mechanic
classication may be directly correlated with the maturity level,
sedimentological and lithological characteristics of commercial
shale systems (Passey et al., 2010).

Figs. 35 exhibit curve patterns of P- and S-wave velocities and

their attenuation as a function of frequency including the effect of
mineralogy and shale maturity. Utilizing them, we can elucidate the
elastic response of shales classied in Table 2. Figs. 3 and 4 represent
carbonate (CA) and quartz (QR) dominated shale formations. They
exhibit very similar bearing on the predicted elastic properties in the
acoustic dispersive frequency bandwidth. However, they have quantitatively differences. The previous results from their slightly contrasting properties (Table 1) assigned for both solid matrixes
corresponding to 80% bulk volumetric fraction. Their patterns are
normally characterized by low-frequency wave velocities smaller
than high-frequency wave velocities. The lowest and highest calculated data series correspond to drained shales: CA(80%)CL(20%), QR
(80%)CL(20%) and water saturated shales: CA(80%)CL(5%)QR
(5%)WA(10%), QR(80%) CL(5%)CA(5%)WA(10%); respectively.
Also, it is clearly observed that dry gas contained into shale formation
drives to higher P- and S-waves attenuation. The rest of shale systems
(Table 2): immature, mature and post-mature source rocks are
similar in their V p and V p curves. An additional sedimentological
and lithological analyses could be seen in Cen and Hersi (2006).
The shale system with clay dominated bearing (Z80% of Clay)
is drastically different from the previous two systems; it clearly
displays reverse curve patterns of the P- and S-wave velocities and
larger values of wave attenuations, Fig. 5. The set of curves are the
same as Figs. 2 and 3, but the solid skeleton is mainly composed of
clay. It is observed that low-frequency wave velocities are greater
than high-frequency velocities as a result of clay elastic properties
smaller than values of carbonate solid inclusions (Table 2).
For instance, the highest values at seismic wave velocities
(V p 1.38 km/s, V s 0.77 km/s) are only for solid rock identied

O.C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos, R. Nicols-Lopez / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 122 (2014) 420427

425

Fig. 5. (a) Compressional wave velocity, V p . (b) Shear wave velocity, V s . (c) Compressional wave attenuation, Imkp a. (d) Shear wave attenuation, Imks a. Frequencydependent elastic response of clay dominated shale systems at constant inclusion radius. Gasoil shale systems: drained shale, CL(80%) CA(20%); water saturated shale, CL
(80%) CA(5%) QR(5%) WA(10%); immature source rock, CL(80%) CA(10%) KE(10%); two mature source rocks, CL(80%) CA(10%) KE(5%) HO(5%) and CL(80%) CA
(10%) KE(5%) DG(5%); two post-mature source rocks, CL(80%) CA(10%) HO(10%) and CL(80%) CA(10%) DG(10%).

Table 1
Density and elastic properties of the pure mineral constituents and pore uids
present in documented gasoil shale systems.
Mineral group
and pore uids

Vp

Vs

(kg/m )

(km/s)

(km/s)

2650
2710
2640
1300
972.5
51.7
1040

1.12
6.64
5.63
2.25
1.29
0.505
1.5

0.61
3.44
3.48
1.45
_

Density
3

Clay
Carbonate
Quartz
Kerogen
Heavy oil
Dry gas
Sea water

distribution of source rocks from seismic and sonic wave

velocities.

Reference

4. Concluding remarks
Mavko et al. (2003)
Mavko et al. (2003)
Mavko et al. (2003)
Mavko et al. (2003)
Batzle and Wang (1992)
Batzle and Wang (1992)
Batzle and Wang (1992)

The reference temperature is 100 1C and reference pressure is 10 MPa for density,
P- and S-wave velocities.

as drained shale: CL(80%) CA(20%) and the lower values are for
post-mature source rocks containing dry gas: (V p 1.14 km/s,
V s 0.64 km/s) and heavy oil (V p 1.21 km/s, V s 0.63 km/s). Also,
throughout dispersive frequency bandwidth, the curve distortion
of mature and post-mature source rock series is derived from the
highly contrasting elastic properties among carbonate inclusion
solid and dry gas or heavy oil uids.
Summarizing, the P-, S-waves dispersion and their attenuations
were computed including different mineral compositions, type
of pore uids and rock maturity for shale systems (Table 2).
The results condensed at curve patterns aim to analyze and interpret the seismic responses of argillaceous, calcareous and siliceous
shales (Fig. 2). Moreover, it is useful to identify the quality and

The rock mineral composition represented by clay, quartz and

carbonate as well as the saturating uid rocks is considered in the
dynamic modeling. The analyses of dispersion and attenuation of
elastic waves through wide-frequency bands in shale systems are
carried out using the effective dynamical mechanical properties.
These properties were calculated with the self-consistent method
for patches with aspect radio equal to 1. Useful curve patterns for
P- and S-waves velocity and attenuation are presented to identify
and discriminate argillaceous, siliceous and calcareous shale
systems and uids in the pore. The maturity of the shale source
formations is included in the analysis of the elastic response
patterns. The obtained patterns will be invaluable to analyze and
interpret the seismic and sonic responses of oil and gas shale
systems; and for the characterization of unconventional reservoirs.
Higher values of P- and S-waves attenuation are estimated in clay
dominated shale and lower values in quartz dominated shale. To
reconcile elastic properties measured at different frequencies in
laboratory, the inclusion radius and dimensionless frequency are
used. All the modeling results are consistent with the volumetric
fraction, discriminated layer thickness, inclusion radius and
length-wave resolution.
Next steps in this research is to consider the transverse
anisotropy and wide range of inclusion shapes like layers, lens
and patches with aspect ratio from 0.05 to 0.99; and to use

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O.C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos, R. Nicols-Lopez / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 122 (2014) 420427

Table 2
Volumetric fractions used for characterization of the elastic response patterns of shale systems. The shale maturity classication and general mechanic description are
included.
No.

Volumetric fraction Matrix (I 80%)

Shale systems

Drained shale:
Solid skeleton, matrix of the shale systems. Any pore uids are not present.

a
b
c

Water saturated shale:

Matrix and whole porous volume is saturated with sea water.

d
e
f

Immature source rock:

Matrix and kerogen prone to generate oil and gas.

g
h
i
j
k

Mature source rock:

Matrix, kerogen and dry gas or heavy oil.

l
m
n
o

Post-mature source rock:

Matrix and dry gas or heavy oil saturating bulk porosity.

p
q
r
s

10
(%)

10
(%)

II
II
III

II
III
III

II
III

II
III
II
III

5
(%)

5
(%)

II
III
4

III
II
II

4
4
III

1
1
1
II
III

II
III
II

III
1
1

II
III
II
III

1
1
1
1

2
2
3
3

3
3
2
2

I, II and III are clay, quartzite and carbonate. They are switched among them to characterize the complex mineralogy of different shale matrixes (1  ). 1, 2, 3 and 4 are
kerogen, dry gas, heavy oil and sea water, respectively. [The total porosity () could include solid inclusions embedded into the solid matrix (I) and pore uids.]

available seismic data from shale reservoir to ultimate the modeling validation.

and V p or V s . The evaluation of (A4) is elementary and gives

I

16 2 a3
2

3k

Acknowledgments

 1

A6

where
The authors are thankful to Instituto Mexicano del Petroleo for
giving permission to publish the article.

Appendix A. The kernel functions

Green's function G for the isotropic homogeneous matrix
material takes the form
(


)
1
eijxj=V s 1 2 eijxj=V p  eijxj=V s
A1
Gij x


40 ij V 2s jxj 2 xi xj
jxj
where the elastic tensor C 0 is
C 0 ijkl 0 ij kl 0 ik jl il jk  23 ij kl
the velocities V p and V s are respectively


 1=2
0 4=30 1=2
0
and V s
Vp
0
0

A2

31  ik a
k a3

sin k a  k a cos k aeik a :

Another term required is

Z
Z
0 
2 eik jx  x j
dx
dx0
J ij
xi xj jx  x0 j
jxj o a
jx' j o a

A7

A8

This is isotropic and so may be evaluated as one-third of its

trace, multiplied by ij . Since term in brackets is 4 times the
fundamental solution of a Helmholtz equation, the result is
1
16 2 a3
2
:
J ij  ij 4a3 k I or J ij ij
3
9

A9

It follows that:
A3

The elastic moduli 0 and 0 and density 0 may be complex but

are assumed to be such that the square roots in (A3) can both be
chosen with positive real parts and negative imaginary parts so
that, when is real and positive, (A1) corresponds to outgoing
waves that decay as jxj increases.
Considering rst the term M t , for a spherical inclusion of
radius a (patches with aspect radio equal to 1) the integral
Z
Z
0
eik jx  x j
A4
dx
dx0
I
0
jx  x j
jxj o a
jx0 j o a
where

A5

M t ij

1
3  V p  2V s :
30 ij

A10

The term Sx can be evaluated similarly. It is an isotropic, fourthorder tensor with the same symmetries as C 0 . With the notation
C 0 30 ; 20

A11

it follows that:
3 0 13 C 0 iikk ;

3 0 100 C 0 ijij :

A12

The terms corresponding to 3 0 , 20 for Sx may thus be

obtained by considering Sx iikk and Sx ijij . The details of the
calculation are omitted but the result is




V p
2V p
1
V
Sx
;
s :
A13
3 0 40 5 30 40 0

O.C. Valdiviezo-Mijangos, R. Nicols-Lopez / Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 122 (2014) 420427

Eqs. (1)(13) and Eqs. (A1)(A13) are compiled to describe

the elastic behavior of shale plays by means of self-consistent
equations.
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