SCEC Award Number 14111 View PDF
Proposal Category Collaborative Proposal (Integration and Theory)
Proposal Title A Collaborative Project: Rupture Dynamics, Validation of the Numerical Simulation Method
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Ruth Harris United States Geological Survey Jean-Paul Ampuero California Institute of Technology Michael Barall Invisible Software, Inc. Benchun Duan Texas A&M University Eric Dunham Stanford University Jeremy Kozdon United States Navy Nadia Lapusta California Institute of Technology Shuo Ma San Diego State University Zheqiang Shi San Diego State University Brad Aagaard United States Geological Survey Ralph Archuleta University of California, Santa Barbara Xiaofei Chen University of Science and Technology of China (China) Victor Cruz-Atienza Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico) Luis Dalguer Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (Switzerland) Steven Day San Diego State University Ahmed Elbanna University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Alice-Agnes Gabriel Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany) Yoshihiro Kaneko GNS Science (New Zealand) Yuko Kase National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan) Peter Moczo Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia) David Oglesby University of California, Riverside Kim Olsen San Diego State University
Other Participants Ryan Payne, Kenneth Duru, Sam Bydlon, Junle Jiang, Geoff Ely, and others
SCEC Priorities 3c, 3e, 6b SCEC Groups CME, FARM, GMP
Report Due Date 03/15/2015 Date Report Submitted N/A
Project Abstract
 This multi-co-PI collaborative project included SCEC investigators (senior PI's, postdocs, and students) from multiple countries who participated in the 2014-2015 spontaneous rupture code benchmark comparisons and scientific discussions. These code comparisons are conducted so as to test the spontaneous rupture computer codes used by SCEC and USGS scientists to computationally simulate dynamic earthquake rupture. Unlike some other methods that might be implemented to examine or simulate large earthquakes, spontaneous earthquake rupture computer codes are quite complex, and there are no mathematical solutions that can easily be used to test if the codes are working as expected. To remedy this problem, we compare the results produced by each code with the results produced by other codes. If when using the same assumptions about fault-friction, initial stress conditions, fault geometry, and material properties, the codes all produce the same results, such as rupture-front patterns and synthetic seismograms, then we are more confident that the codes are operating as intended. Please see Harris [2004] for more explanation about what spontaneous rupture codes do, and Harris et al. [2009, 2011], and our group’s website http://www.scecdata.edu/cvws for more information about our collaborative scientific project.
Intellectual Merit This multi-co-PI collaborative project included SCEC investigators (senior PI's, postdocs, and students) from multiple countries who participated in the spontaneous rupture code benchmark comparisons and scientific discussions. These code comparisons are conducted so as to test the spontaneous rupture computer codes used by SCEC and USGS scientists to computationally simulate dynamic earthquake rupture. Unlike some other methods that might be implemented to examine or simulate large earthquakes, spontaneous earthquake rupture computer codes are quite complex, and there are no mathematical solutions that can easily be used to test if the codes are working as expected. To remedy this problem, we compare the results produced by each code with the results produced by other codes. If when using the same assumptions about fault-friction, initial stress conditions, fault geometry, and material properties, the codes all produce the same results, such as rupture-front patterns and synthetic seismograms, then we are more confident that the codes are operating as intended. Our group's activities advance our science because in the act of improving our codes and exploring the properties of our benchmark exercises, we also learn more about how we think that earthquakes operate and the resulting ground motions operate and are produced.
Broader Impacts This multi-co-PI collaborative project included SCEC investigators (senior PI's, postdocs, and students) from multiple countries. Our code comparisons are conducted so as to test the spontaneous rupture computer codes used by SCEC and USGS scientists to computationally simulate dynamic earthquake rupture. Unlike some other methods that might be implemented to examine or simulate large earthquakes, spontaneous earthquake rupture computer codes are quite complex, and there are no mathematical solutions that can easily be used to test if the codes are working as expected. To remedy this problem, we compare the results produced by each code with the results produced by other codes. If when using the same assumptions about fault-friction, initial stress conditions, fault geometry, and material properties, the codes all produce the same results, such as rupture-front patterns and synthetic seismograms, then we are more confident that the codes are operating as intended. The eventual goals of this project are to better understand our science as we are practicing it now, and to extend our results for engineering application.
Exemplary Figure The report shows lots of results figures. How about Figures 1 and 2?