ISSN:
1365-2478
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
Notes:
We present a numerical method of simulating seismic wave propagation on unstructured 2D grids. The algorithm is based on the velocity–stress formulation of the elastic wave equation and therefore uses a staggered grid approach. Unlike finite-element or spectral-element methods, which can also handle flexible unstructured grids, we use explicit differential operators for the calculation of spatial derivatives in each time step. As shown in previous work, three types of these operators are used, and their particular performance is analysed and compared with standard explicit finite-difference operators on regular quadratic and hexagonal grids. Our investigations are especially focused on the influence of grid irregularity, sampling rate (i.e. gridpoints per wavelength) and numerical anisotropy on the accuracy of numerical seismograms. The results obtained from the various methods are therefore compared with analytical solutions. The algorithm is then applied to a number of models that are difficult to handle using (quasi-)regular grid methods. Such alternative techniques may be useful in modelling the full wavefield of bodies with complex geometries (e.g. cylindrical bore-hole samples, 2D earth models) and, because of their local character, they are well suited for parallelization.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2478.2001.00276.x
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