Numerical simulation of seismic activity by the grid-characteristic method

Seismic activity in homogeneous and layered enclosing rock masses is studied. A numerical mechanical-mathematical model of a hypocenter is proposed that describes the whole range of elastic perturbations propagating from the hypocenter. Synthetic beachball plots computed for various fault plane orientations are compared with the analytical solution in the case of homogeneous rock. A detailed analysis of wave patterns and synthetic seismograms is performed to compare seismic activities in homogeneous and layered enclosing rock masses. The influence exerted by individual components of a seismic perturbation on the stability of quarry walls is analyzed. The grid-characteristic method is used on three-dimensional parallelepipedal and curvilinear structured grids with boundary conditions set on the boundaries of the integration domain and with well-defined contact conditions specified in explicit form.     

Combined grid-characteristic method for the numerical solution of three-dimensional dynamical elastoplastic problems

A combined method blending the advantages of smoothed particles hydrodynamics (SPH) and the grid-characteristic method (GCM) is proposed for simulating elastoplastic bodies. Various grid methods, including the GCM, have long been used for the numerical simulation of elastoplastic media. This method applies to the simulation of wave processes in elastic media, including elastic impacts, in which case an advantage is the use of moving tetrahedral meshes. Additionally, fracture processes can be simulated by applying various fracture criteria. However, this is a technically complicated task with the accuracy of the results degrading due to the continual updating of the grid. A more suitable approach to the simulation of processes involving substantial fractures and deformations is based on SPH, which is a meshless method. However, this method also has shortcomings: it produces spurious modes, and the simulation of oscillations requires particle refinement. Thus, two families of methods are available that are optimal as applied to two different groups of problems. However, a realworld problem can frequently be a mixed one, which requires a substantial tradeoff in the numerical methods applied. Aimed at solving such problems, a combined GCM-SPH method is developed that blends the advantages of two constituting techniques and partially eliminates their shortcomings.     

Numerical solution of eigentuple-eigenvector problems in Hilbert spaces by a gradient method

Summary A gradient technique previously developed for computing the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the general eigenproblemAx=Bx is generalized to the eigentuple-eigenvector problem . Among the applications of the latter are (1) the determination of complex (,x) forAx=Bx using only real arithmetic, (2) a 2-parameter Sturm-Liouville equation and (3) -matrices. The use of complex arithmetic in the gradient method is also discussed. Computational results are presented.This research was partially supported by NSF Grants MPS74-13332 and MCS76-09172     

Numerical study of wave propagation in porous media with the use of the grid-characteristic method

Elastic wave propagation in a porous medium is numerically studied by applying the grid-characteristic method. On the basis of direct measurements of reflected and transmitted wave amplitudes, the reflection and decay coefficients are investigated as depending on the degree of porosity (percentage of the pore volume) and on the type of the filling substance (solid, liquid, or nothing). The reflection and decay coefficients are shown to be closely related to the porosity of the medium, which can be used in geological applications (estimation of porosity) and engineering applications (acoustic response attenuation).     

Numerical solution of some three-dimensional problems of elasticity theory by Vekua's method

We consider the solution of the problem of elastic equilibrium of a three-dimensional orthotropic plate in the absence of displacements on the end surfaces under the action of forces applied to the lateral surfaces. The solution of the original problem by Vekua's method is reduced to the solution of a recursive sequence of two-dimensional problems. A numerical solution of these problems is obtained by computer using the finite-difference method. The effect of the number of Legendre polynomials on the accuracy with which the boundary conditions are satisfied is investigated.Translated from Vychislitel'naya i Prikladnaya Matematika, No. 59, pp. 77–84, 1986.     

Numerical solution by the quasi-reversibility method of unstable problems for the first-order evolution equation

Prior bounds are derived on the solution of the perturbed problem in different versions of the quasi-reversibility method used for approximate solution of unstable problems for first-order evolution equations. An example of such a problem is provided by the problem backward in time for the equation of heat conduction. Approximate solution of perturbed problems by difference methods is considered. The investigation of the difference schemes of the quasi-reversibility method relies on the general theory of p-stability of difference schemes. Specific features of solution of problems with non-self-adjoint operators are considered. Efficient difference schemes are constructed for multidimensional problems.Translated from Matematicheskoe Modelirovanie i Reshenie Obratnykh Zadach. Matematicheskoi Fiziki, pp. 93–124, 1993.     

Numerical solution of stationary viscous incompressible fluid problems by the method of fictitious domains

We consider some issues of numerical implementation of the fictitious domain method for viscous incompressible fluid problems. Plane stationary problems are solved by successive approximations in the nonlinearity. Plane heat convection problems in the Boussinesq approximation are also considered. Solution examples of some specimen problems are presented.Translated from Vychislitel'naya Matematika i Matematicheskoe Obespechenie EVM, pp. 255–262, 1985.     

Numerical solution of optimization problems in vibrational mechanics using the characteristics method

Optimal control problems with a terminal pay-off functional are considered. The dynamics of the control system consists of rapid oscillatory and slow non-linear motions. A numerical method for solving these problems using the characteristics of the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation is presented. Estimates of the accuracy of the method are obtained. A theorem is proved which enables one to determine the class of functions containing the optimal preset control to be obtained. The results of the numerical solution of a terminal optimization problem for a fast non-linear pendulum are presented.     

Numerical solution of boundary value problems by using an optimized two-step block method

Numerical Algorithms - This paper aims at the application of an optimized two-step hybrid block method for solving boundary value problems with different types of boundary conditions. The proposed...     

Numerical solution of thermal convection problems using the multidomain boundary element method

The multidomain dual reciprocity method (MD‐DRM) has been effectively applied to the solution of two‐dimensional thermal convection problems where the momentum and energy equations govern the motion of a viscous fluid. In the proposed boundary integral method the domain integrals are transformed into equivalent boundary integrals by the dual reciprocity approach applied in a subdomain basis. On each subregion or domain element the integral representation formulas for the velocity and temperature are applied and discretised using linear continuous boundary elements, and the equations from adjacent subregions are matched by additional continuity conditions. Some examples showing the accuracy, the efficiency and flexibility of the proposed method are presented. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 18: 469–489, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/num.10016     

Numerical solution of diffraction problems by a least‐squares finite element method

Consider the diffraction of a time‐harmonic wave incident upon a periodic (grating) structure. Under certain assumptions, the diffraction problem may be modelled by a Helmholtz equation with transparent boundary conditions. In this paper, the diffraction problem is formulated as a first‐order system of linear equations and solved by a least‐squares finite element method. The method follows the general minus one norm approach of Bramble, Lazarov, and Pasciak. Our computational experiments indicate that the method is accurate with the optimal convergence property, and it is capable of dealing with complicated grating structures. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical analysis of the method of fundamental solution for harmonic problems in annular domains

In this study, we investigate the application of the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) to the Dirichlet problem for Laplace's equation in an annular domain. We examine the properties of the resulting coefficient matrix and its eigenvalues. The convergence of the method is proved for analytic boundary data. An efficient matrix decomposition algorithm using fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) is developed for the computation of the MFS approximation. We also tested the algorithm numerically on several problems confirming the theoretical predictions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2005     

Numerical solution of stochastic differential problems in the biosciences

Stochastic differential equations (SDEs) models play a prominent role in many application areas including biology, epidemiology and population dynamics, mostly because they can offer a more sophisticated insight through physical phenomena than their deterministic counterparts do. So, suitable numerical methods must be introduced to simulate the solutions of the resulting stochastic differential systems. In this work we take into account both Euler–Taylor expansion and Runge–Kutta-type methods for stochastic ordinary differential equations (SODEs) and the Euler–Maruyama method for stochastic delay differential equations (SDDEs), focusing on the most relevant implementation issues. The corresponding Matlab codes for both SODEs and SDDEs problems are tested on mathematical models arising in the biosciences.     

Numerical solution of bilinear programming problems

A bilinear programming problem with uncoupled variables is considered. First, a special technique for generating test bilinear problems is considered. Approximate algorithms for local and global search are proposed. Asymptotic convergence of these algorithms is analyzed, and stopping rules are proposed. In conclusion, numerical results for randomly generated bilinear problems are presented and analyzed.     

Numerical solution of nonlinear diffraction problems

An adaptive finite element method is developed for solving Maxwell's equations in a nonlinear periodic structure. The medium or computational domain is truncated by a perfect matched layer (PML) technique. Error estimates are established. Numerical examples are provided, which illustrate the efficiency of the method.     

Numerical solution of Hopf bifurcation problems

We present two numerical methods for the solution of Hopf bifurcation problems involving ordinary differential equations. The first one consists in a discretization of the continuous problem by means of shooting or multiple shooting methods. Thus a finite-dimensional bifurcation problem of special structure is obtained. It may be treated by appropriate iterative algorithms. The second approach transforms the Hopf bifurcation problem into a regular nonlinear boundary value problem of higher dimension which depends on a perturbation parameter ?. It has isolated solutions in the ?-domain of interest, so that conventional discretization methods can be applied. We also consider a concrete Hopf bifurcation problem, a biological feedback inhibition control system. Both methods are applied to it successfully.