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Normal-fault stress and displacement through finite-element analysis

Antonietta Megna·Salvatore Barba·Stefano Santini
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Abstract

We compute displacement and stress due to a normal fault by means of two-dimensional plane-strain finite-element analysis. To do so, we apply a system of forces to the fault nodes and develop an iterative algorithm serving to determine the force magnitudes for any slip distribution. As a sample case, we compute the force magnitudes assuming uniform slip on a 10-km two-dimensional normal fault. The numerical model generates displacement and stress fields that compare well to the analytical solution. In fact, we find little difference in displacements (<5%), displacement orientation (<15 DEG), and stress components (<35%, half of which due to slip tolerance). We analyze such misfit, and discuss how the error propagates from displacement to stress. Our scheme provides a convenient way to use the finite-elements direct method in a trial-and-error procedure to reproduce any smooth slip distribution.

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Antonietta Megna, Salvatore Barba, Stefano Santini. 2005-10-17. Normal-fault stress and displacement through finite-element analysis. https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0510159

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