Application of Distinct Element Method into Simulation of the Red River Fault Displacement

Abstract

The numerical methods have been applied in decades in the field of crustal engineering to simulate the processes of material alteration as well as the stress field distribution during movement. One of such numerical methods is the Distinct Element Method by Cundall and Strack (1979). The Red River fault in the North of Vietnam is the extended part of the Ailao Shan Red River shear zone from the Tibet to the offshore area in the Gulf of Tonkin Vietnam under the influence of India-Eurasian collision. Development of the fault mainly controlled the formation of the Song Hong basin in the north of Vietnam. Though many researches have been carried out along the Red River fault in order understand either mechanism and structural styles of the Song Hong basin or dynamic mechanism of the Red River fault displacement those problems are still in controversy with many different hypotheses. In this paper, Distinct Element Method (DEM) has been used to simulate the development of the Red River fault system for revealing the stress field distribution along the Red River fault and its propagation toward offshore area. The results are prospective to be applied into interpretation of structural configurations of the Song Hong basin and the displacements of the Red River fault.