Multiscale model reduction of finite-difference frequency-domain wave modelling in acoustic media

Abstract

SUMMARY Frequency-domain wave modelling can easily describe the visco-acoustic behaviour of wave propagation using frequency-dependent velocities. Conventional finite-difference (FD) modelling in the frequency domain is computationally prohibitive for solving the acoustic Helmholtz equation in complicated and large geological models. To reduce the computational cost of traditional FD Helmholtz solvers, we develop a multiscale FD frequency-domain method that uses multiscale basis functions to significantly reduce the dimension of system matrices associated with the Helmholtz equation. Due to the insufficient accuracy of the first-order multiscale basis functions in the case of strongly heterogeneous models, we introduce the multinode coarse-element scheme into the scalar Helmholtz equation, a scheme previously developed in the extended multiscale finite-element method for vector problems. This multinode scheme enables multiscale basis functions to capture accurate fine-scale medium property variations. We use one homogeneous model and two heterogeneous models to validate our multiscale method for accuracy and computational cost. Numerical results demonstrate that our new approach can significantly reduce the time and memory costs of acoustic wave modelling while maintaining accuracy, indicating the great potential of our multiscale method in large-scale modelling applications.