HR: 1340h
AN: NG33A-0169    [Abstracts]
TI: Unstructured Mesh Construction and Finite Element Modeling of the Fault System of Sumatra Area
AU: * Xing, H
EM: xing@esscc.uq.edu.au
AF: Earth Systems Science Computational Centre (ESSCC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia
AU: * Xing, H
EM: xing@esscc.uq.edu.au
AF: Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator (ACcESS), Major National Research Facility, The University of Queensland,St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia
AU: Mora, P
EM: morap@esscc.uq.edu.au
AF: Earth Systems Science Computational Centre (ESSCC), The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia
AU: Mora, P
EM: morap@esscc.uq.edu.au
AF: Australian Computational Earth Systems Simulator (ACcESS), Major National Research Facility, The University of Queensland,St Lucia, Brisbane, QLD 4072 Australia
AB: On December 26, 2004, an M=9.0 mega-thrust earthquake occurred off the West Coast of Sumatra, triggering a global tsunami that resulted in wide-spread devastation to Indian Ocean communities, killing around 290,000 people including a number of Australians and displacing millions from their homes. This has been one of the most catastrophic natural disasters on record. This was just a reminder of the danger posed by earthquakes/tsunamis. The aim of this presentation is to improve understanding and forecasting of the crustal dynamics around the Sumatra area through large scale finite element modeling. This includes: (a) fault model construction for further numerical analysis, i.e. generating the unstructured mesh and defining the boundary conditions using the available data and imaging information around the Sumatra area; (b) finite element simulation of the constructed subduction fault model around Sumatra using finite element software developed by the authors (a 3-dimensional finite element computational model and code for modeling nonlinear frictional contact behaviours between multiple deformable bodies with the arbitrarily-shaped contact element strategy). Detailed simulation results on the fault dynamics of the subduction zone around the Sumatra area will be presented. References Xing, H.L., Mora, P., & Makinouchi, A. (2004) Finite element analysis of fault bend influence on stick-slip instability along an intra-plate fault, Pure Appl. Geophys., 161, 2091-2102. Xing, H.L., & Makinouchi, A. (2002) Three dimensional finite element modelling of thermomechanical frictional contact between finite deformation bodies using R-minimum strategy, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 191, 4193-4214.
DE: 0500 COMPUTATIONAL GEOPHYSICS (3200, 3252, 7833)
DE: 0560 Numerical solutions (4255)
DE: 3200 MATHEMATICAL GEOPHYSICS (0500, 4400, 7833)
DE: 3252 Spatial analysis (0500)
DE: 4255 Numerical modeling (0545, 0560)
SC: Nonlinear Geophysics [NG]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005