Laboratory benchmarks vs. Synthetic modeling of seismic wave propagation in complex environments (BENCHIE Project): Results for a spectral-element method and the Tip Wave Superposition Method

Abstract

Accurate simulations of seismic wave propagation in complex geological structures with great and rapid variations of topography are of primary interest for environmental and industrial applications. Unfortunately, difficulties arise for such complex environments, due essentially to the existence of shadow zones, head waves, diffractions and edge effects. Usually, methods and codes are tested against "validated" ones, but one might wonder which method/code ultimately approaches the "real" solution. An original approach for seismics is to compare synthetic seismic data to controlled laboratory data for a well-described configuration, in order to analyze the respective limitations of each method/code. This is one of the objectives of the BENCHIE project, which brings together laboratories in France, Norway and Russia. In this presentation we will present some preliminary results provided by both laboratory experiments conducted in a tank and numerical simulations of wave propagation. The laboratory data have been obtained by zero-offset acquisitions at different ultrasonic frequencies on the Marseille model which is made up of anticlines, fault and truncated pyramid. The numerical results have been obtained by two methods: the Spectral-Element Method and the Tip-Wave Superposition Method.