Simulation of fault dynamic rupture and near-field strong motion

Dynamic rupture process of earthquake fault and its near-field strong ground motions are simulated by time-space-decoupled, explicit finite element method with multi-transmitting formula (MTF) of artificial boundary in this paper. This decoupled, explicit method has advantage to easily incorporate into time-step simulation of dynamic rupture process on earthquake fault, as well as wave motions. The MTF approach for artificial boundary allows of performing simulation in a smaller computational model. Consequently, simulation can be implemented conveniently, say by microcomputer, resulted from substantially reduction of computational storage and time. It is meaningful for simulation of dynamic rupture of earthquake fault and its near-field motions, especially for high frequency motions, which is interested in earthquake engineering. Further, we use this method and slip-weakening frictional model to study the effect of different slip weakening distance dc on the source time function, near filed ground motion and their Fourier spectra. It is found that dc have little effect on the source time function and near filed ground motion for low frequency components (<1Hz).