Next Generation Boundary Element Models for Earthquake Science

Thomas B. Thompson, & Brendan J. Meade

Published August 15, 2016, SCEC Contribution #6900, 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting Poster #338

Modeling fault behavior and stress evolution in complex fault geometries throughout the earthquake cycle is a fundamental goal in earthquake science. To enable these studies we discuss the development of Tectosaur, a boundary element library for modeling crustal deformation that incorporates: 1) surface topography, 2) gravity, 3) material property variations, and 4) arbitrarily complex fault system geometry. A full-space Green's function formulation using a novel kernel independent singular integration method allows complete freedom in defining fault, surface, and internal material interface geometries. A GPU-centered implementation including approximation of far-field element interactions using the fast multipole method admits problems with hundreds of millions of elements. We discuss how this boundary element approach can be used to implement mechanically realistic block models and earthquake simulators.

Key Words
boundary elements, geometry, gravity, topography

Citation
Thompson, T. B., & Meade, B. J. (2016, 08). Next Generation Boundary Element Models for Earthquake Science. Poster Presentation at 2016 SCEC Annual Meeting.

Related Projects & Working Groups
Computational Science (CS)