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| Spectral-element simulations of elastic wave propagation in exploration and geotechnical applications |
| Lin Zheng1, Qi Zhao2, Bernd Milkereit3, Giovanni Grasselli2, Qinya Liu1 |
1 Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
2 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
3 Department of Earth Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada |
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Abstract We apply the spectral-element method (SEM), a high-order finite-element method (FEM) to simulate seismic wave propagation in complex media for exploration and geotechnical problems. The SEM accurately treats geometrical complexities through its flexible FEM mesh and accurately interpolates wavefields through high-order Lagrange polynomials. It has been a numerical solver used extensively in earthquake seismology. We demonstrate the applicability of SEM for selected 2D exploration and geotechnical velocity models with an open-source SEM software package SPECFEM2D. The first scenario involves a marine survey for a salt dome with the presence of major internal discontinuities, and the second example simulates seismic wave propagation for an open-pit mine with complex surface topography. Wavefield snapshots, synthetic seismograms, and peak particle velocity maps are presented to illustrate the promising use of SEM for industrial problems.
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Received: 18 September 2013
Published: 22 February 2014
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| Fund:the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Center for Excellence in Mining Innovations (CEMI, through SUMIT project) |
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Corresponding Authors:
Qinya Liu
E-mail: liuqy@physics.utoronto.ca
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