Spectral Finite Element Simulation of Seismic Wave Propagation and Fault Dislocation in Elastic Media

This article employs higher order spectral finite elements to model seismic wave propagation and fault dislocation phenomena in two dimensional elastic media. This study presents two main phases comprising wave propagation and fault dislocation, respectively. In the first phase, accuracy and dispersion assessments are performed to indicate capability of these elements in such problems, revealing suitable polynomial orders which should be utilized for obtaining better accuracy of wave propagation. In the second phase, the split node technique is developed in terms of spectral finite element method in order to simulate both static and dynamic fault dislocations. The split node technique was originally presented for static dislocation using finite element method, whereas it is herein developed to both static and dynamic dislocations using spectral finite element method. Also, the dislocations are modeled in layered half space to incorporate more realistic analyses. Several numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate accuracy and ability of spectral finite elements for modeling of wave propagation and fault dynamics.