Martin Galis, Comenius University in Bratislava

KAUST-IAMCS Workshop on Modeling and Simulation of Wave Propagation and Applications 2012

May 8-9, 2012

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Thuwal, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Initialization of Spontaneous Rupture Propagation in a Dynamic Model with Linear Slip-Weakening Friction - A Parametric Study

Authors:

• Martin Galis
• Christian Pelties
• Jozef Kristek
• Peter Moczo
  

Artificial procedures are used to initiate spontaneous rupture on faults with the linear slip-weakening (LSW) friction law. Probably the most frequent technique is the stress asperity. It is important to minimize effects of the artificial initialization on the spontaneous rupture propagation itself. The effects may strongly depend on the geometry and size of the asperity, spatial distribution of the stress in and around the asperity, and a maximum stress-overshoot value.

We considered different sizes of initialization zone, different shapes of the initialization zone (square, circle, ellipse) and different stress-overshoot values to investigate conditions of the spontaneous rupture propagation.

We compared our numerical results with the 2D and 3D estimates by Andrews (1976a,b), Day (1982), Campillo & Ionescu (1997), Favreau et al. (1999) and Uenishi & Rice (2003, 2004).

Results of our study may help modelers to better setup the initialization zone in order to avoid, e.g., a too large initialization zone and reduce numerical artifacts.