SH Wave Scattering from Fractures using Boundary Element Method with Linear Slip Boundary Condition

Abstract

A boundary element method (BEM) combined with a linear slip boundary condition is proposed to calculate SH wave scattering from fractures. The linear slip boundary condition was proposed by Schoenberg (1980) to model elastic wave propagation through an imperfectly bonded interface, where the traction cross the interface is continuous and displacement is discontinuous. Here, we demonstrate how to simulate SH wave scattering from fractures by applying the BEM and this linear slip boundary. Comparisons between results obtained using our model with those obtained using a computationally expensive finite difference method (FDM) (Coates and Schoenberg, 1995; Kruger et al., 2005) are performed to show the validity and accuracy of our approach. An example of SH wave scattering from three curved, crossing fractures is also given. Although our discussion here is focused on the linear slip boundary condition, our approach can easily be adopted to various slip boundary conditions that specify the displacement discontinuity and traction relations depending on different physical models of fractures.