SCEC Award Number 22161 View PDF
Proposal Category Collaborative Proposal (Integration and Theory)
Proposal Title Towards bridging the SEAS and earthquake simulator efforts: Using the Cajon Pass earthquake gate as a test site
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Benchun Duan Texas A&M University
Other Participants one graduate student to be named.
SCEC Priorities 5a, 2e, 1d SCEC Groups SAFS, FARM, EFP
Report Due Date 03/15/2023 Date Report Submitted 09/05/2023
Project Abstract
 This project is to further develop a finite element method (FEM) based dynamic earthquake simulator to bridge the SEAS and earthquake simulator efforts in the SCEC community to capture both spontaneously dynamic rupture and quasi-static processes of nucleation, postseismic and interseismic on geometrically complex fault systems, such as the Cajon Pass earthquake gate. Our dynamic earthquake simulator is based on an explicit FEM code EQdyna, which is one of the codes in the SCEC dynamic rupture code verification group. In this project, we develop a workflow for the test site, including extracting the fault geometry from SCEC CFM, converting it into STL format, meshing in Cubit, partitioning by Metis and Scotch, and integrating with EQdyna. We apply this workflow to the test site for a dynamic rupture simulation. The simulation results show that the workflow works successfully. We will continue this effort to explore rupture behaviors of the Cajon Pass over many earthquake cycles in the years to come.
Intellectual Merit The project develops a unique and powerful tool to explore dynamic rupture behavior over many earthquake cycles on geometrically complex fault systems such as the San Andreas Fault System. The tool will allow researchers to explore fault and rupture mechanics over earthquake cycles and perform physics-based earthquake forecasting and hazard analyses.
Broader Impacts The project provide an opportunity for collaboration between computer scientists and seismologists in developing high-performance computing tools for earthquake source physics studies. The tools can be used in graduate and undergraduate courses and in students' research.
Exemplary Figure Figure 4: A dynamic rupture simulation using EQdyna on the Cajon Pass model with mesh generated by Cubit (Fig 2) and partitioned by Metis and Scotch (Fig 3). A time-weakening law is used for simplicity and for testing the workflow. This figure shows rupture time colormap (left) and seismic waves recorded on ground surface stations (sta1,sta2,sta3,sta4 shown in the left panel).