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A New Technique to Synthesize Seismography with More Flexibility: the Legendre Spectral Element Method with Overlapped Elements

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Abstract

The classic spectral element method (SEM) is important for seismographical simulation. However, waves subjected to irregular interfaces or surfaces are difficult to simulate accurately using SEM with quadrangular/hexahedral elements. In this paper we propose a new technique to solve this problem. The technique reconstructs some new elements near the surface/interface to substitute for any element crossing the interface, thus making the boundary of some new elements an accurate fit to the interface/surface. Numerical comparisons with the classic SEM show that the technique has improved flexibility when dealing with interface problems without losing accuracy and efficiency. The technique also enables us to vary the size and shape of an element smoothly as the velocity in a medium varies so that this removes the inaccuracy resulting from the high local variation of the grid in the classic SEM. Therefore, the technique widens the application of the classic SEM in seismographic simulation.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 40874027, 90715020 and 90915012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Hong Zhou

  2. School of Earth and Space Science, University of Science and Technology, Hefei, 230026, China

    Xiaofei Chen

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  1. Hong Zhou
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  2. Xiaofei Chen
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Correspondence to Hong Zhou.

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Zhou, H., Chen, X. A New Technique to Synthesize Seismography with More Flexibility: the Legendre Spectral Element Method with Overlapped Elements. Pure Appl. Geophys. 167, 1365–1376 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-010-0106-0

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