A rectangular-grid lattice spring model for modeling elastic waves in Poisson’s solids

Abstract

The lattice spring model (LSM) combined with the velocity Verlet algorithm is a newly developed scheme for modeling elastic wave propagation in solid media. Unlike conventional wave equations, LSM is established on the basis of micromechanics of the subsurface media, which enjoys better dynamic characteristics of elastic systems. We develop a rectangular-grid LSM scheme for elastic waves simulation in Poisson’s solids, and the direction-dependent elastic constants are deduced to keep the isotropy of the discrete grid. The stability condition and numerical dispersion properties of LSM are discussed and compared with other numerical methods. The 2D and 3D numerical simulations are carried out using the rectangular-grid LSM, as well as the second- and fourth-order accuracy staggered finite-difference method (FDM). Wavefields obtained by LSM are fairly similar with those by analytical solution and FDM, which demonstrates the correctness of the proposed scheme and its capability of modeling elastic wave propagation in heterogeneous media. Moreover, we perform plane P-wave simulation through a semi-infinite cavity model via LSM and FDM, the recorded wavefield snapshots indicate that our proposed rectangular-grid LSM obtains more reasonable wavefield details compared with those of FDM, especially in media with high compliance and structure complexity. Our main contribution lies in offering an alternative simulation scheme for modeling elastic wave propagation in media with some kinds of complexities, which conventional FDM may fail to simulate.