scholarly journals Influence of fault roughness on surface displacement: from numerical simulations to coseismic slip distributions

2019 ◽  
Vol 220 (3) ◽  
pp. 1857-1877 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucile Bruhat ◽  
Yann Klinger ◽  
Amaury Vallage ◽  
Eric M Dunham

SUMMARY Field studies have characterized natural faults as rough, non-planar surfaces at all scales. Fault roughness induces local stress perturbations during slip, which dramatically affect rupture behaviour, resulting in slip heterogeneity. However, the relation between fault roughness and slip heterogeneity remains a key knowledge gap between current numerical and field studies. In this study, we analyse numerical simulations of earthquake rupture to determine how roughness influences final slip. Using a rupture catalogue containing thousands of dynamic rupture simulations on band-limited self-similar fractal fault profiles with varying roughness and background shear stress levels, we quantify how fault roughness affects the spectral characteristics of the resulting slip distribution. We find that slip distributions become increasingly more self-affine, that is, containing more short wavelength fluctuations as compared to the self-similar fault profiles, as roughness increases. We also find that, at very short wavelengths (<1 km), the fractal dimension of the slip distributions dramatically changes with increasing roughness, background shear stress, and rupture speed (sub-Rayleigh versus supershear). The existence of a critical wavelength around 1 km, under which more short wavelengths are either preserved or created, suggests the role of rupture process and dynamic effects, together with fault geometry, in controlling the final slip distributions. The same spectral analysis is performed on high-resolution coseismic surface slip distributions from a catalogue of real strike-slip earthquakes. Compared to numerical simulations, all earthquakes feature slip distributions that are much more self-affine than the slip distributions from numerical simulations. A different critical wavelength, here around 5–6 km, appears, potentially informing about a critical asperity length. While we show here that the relation between fault roughness and slip is much more complex than expected, this study is a first attempt at using statistical analyses of numerical simulations on rough faults to investigate observed coseismic slip distributions.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jagdish Chandra Vyas ◽  
Martin Galis ◽  
Paul Martin Mai

<p>Geological observations show variations in fault-surface topography not only at large scale (segmentation) but also at small scale (roughness). These geometrical complexities strongly affect the stress distribution and frictional strength of the fault, and therefore control the earthquake rupture process and resulting ground-shaking. Previous studies examined fault-segmentation effects on ground-shaking, but our understanding of fault-roughness effects on seismic wavefield radiation and earthquake ground-motion is still limited.  </p><p>In this study we examine the effects of fault roughness on ground-shaking variability as a function of distance based on 3D dynamic rupture simulations. We consider linear slip-weakening friction, variations of fault-roughness parametrizations, and alternative nucleation positions (unilateral and bilateral ruptures). We use generalized finite difference method to compute synthetic waveforms (max. resolved frequency 5.75 Hz) at numerous surface sites  to carry out statistical analysis.  </p><p>Our simulations reveal that ground-motion variability from unilateral ruptures is almost independent of  distance from the fault, with comparable or higher values than estimates from ground-motion prediction equations (e.g., Boore and Atkinson, 2008; Campbell and Bozornia, 2008). However, ground-motion variability from bilateral ruptures decreases with increasing distance, in contrast to previous studies (e.g., Imtiaz et. al., 2015) who observe an increasing trend with distance. Ground-shaking variability from unilateral ruptures is higher than for bilateral ruptures, a feature due to intricate seismic radiation patterns related to fault roughness and hypocenter location. Moreover, ground-shaking variability for rougher faults is lower than for smoother faults. As fault roughness increases the difference in ground-shaking variabilities between unilateral and bilateral ruptures increases. In summary, our simulations help develop a fundamental understanding of ground-motion variability at high frequencies (~ 6 Hz) due small-scale geometrical fault-surface variations.</p>


2005 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1011-1020 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. E. Zakharov

Abstract. We show that the results of major fetch limited field studies of wind-generated surface gravity waves on deep water can be explained in the framework of simple analytical model. The spectra measured in these experiments are described by self-similar solutions of ``conservative" Hasselmann equation that includes only advective and nonlinear interaction terms. Interaction with the wind and dissipation due to the wave breaking indirectly defines parameters of the self-similar solutions.


2013 ◽  
Vol 724 ◽  
pp. 553-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo R. Peters ◽  
Devaraj van der Meer ◽  
J. M. Gordillo

AbstractIn this paper we analyse the impact of a circular disc on a free surface using experiments, potential flow numerical simulations and theory. We focus our attention both on the study of the generation and possible breakup of the splash wave created after the impact and on the calculation of the force on the disc. We have experimentally found that drops are only ejected from the rim located at the top part of the splash – giving rise to what is known as the crown splash – if the impact Weber number exceeds a threshold value ${\mathit{We}}_{crit} \simeq 140$. We explain this threshold by defining a local Bond number $B{o}_{\mathit{tip}} $ based on the rim deceleration and its radius of curvature, with which we show using both numerical simulations and experiments that a crown splash only occurs when $B{o}_{\mathit{tip}} \gtrsim 1$, revealing that the rim disrupts due to a Rayleigh–Taylor instability. Neglecting the effect of air, we show that the flow in the region close to the disc edge possesses a Weber-number-dependent self-similar structure for every Weber number. From this we demonstrate that ${\mathit{Bo}}_{\mathit{tip}} \propto \mathit{We}$, explaining both why the transition to crown splash can be characterized in terms of the impact Weber number and why this transition occurs for $W{e}_{crit} \simeq 140$. Next, including the effect of air, we have developed a theory which predicts the time-varying thickness of the very thin air cushion that is entrapped between the impacting solid and the liquid. Our analysis reveals that gas critically affects the velocity of propagation of the splash wave as well as the time-varying force on the disc, ${F}_{D} $. The existence of the air layer also limits the range of times in which the self-similar solution is valid and, accordingly, the maximum deceleration experienced by the liquid rim, that sets the length scale of the splash drops ejected when $We\gt {\mathit{We}}_{crit} $.


2014 ◽  
Vol 442 (2) ◽  
pp. 1133-1141 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Čemeljić ◽  
N. Vlahakis ◽  
K. Tsinganos

2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 739-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Jacod ◽  
C. H. Venner ◽  
P. M. Lugt

A previous study of the behavior of friction in EHL contacts for the case of Eyring lubricant behavior resulted in a friction mastercurve. In this paper the same approach is applied to the case of limiting shear stress behavior. By means of numerical simulations the friction coefficient has been computed for a wide range of operating conditions and contact geometries. It is shown that the same two parameters that were found in the Eyring study, a characteristic shear stress, and a reduced coefficient of friction, also govern the behavior of the friction for the case of limiting shear stress models. When the calculated traction data is plotted as a function of these two parameters all results for different cases lie close to a single curve. Experimentally measured traction data is used to validate the observed behavior. Finally, the equations of the mastercurves for both types of rheological model are compared resulting in a relation between the Eyring stress τ0 and the limiting shear stress τL.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Baldassarri ◽  
M. A. Annunziata ◽  
A. Gnoli ◽  
G. Pontuale ◽  
A. Petri

AbstractMany materials are produced, processed and stored as grains, while granularity of matter can be crucial in triggering potentially catastrophic geological events like landslides, avalanches and earthquakes. The response of grain assemblies to shear stress is therefore of utmost relevance to both human and natural environment. At low shear rate a granular system flows intermittently by distinct avalanches. In such state the avalanche velocity in time is expected to follow a symmetrical and universal average behavior, whose dependence on the slip size reduces to a scale factor. Analyzing data from long lasting experiments, we observe a breakdown of this scaling: While in short slips velocity shows indeed a self-similar and symmetric profile, it does not in long slips. The investigation of frictional response in these different regimes evidences that this breakdown can be traced back to the onset of a friction weakening, which is of dynamical origin and can amplify instabilities exactly in this critical state, the most frequent state for natural hazards.


Energies ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Gillibrand ◽  
Roy Walters ◽  
Jason McIlvenny

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