Stress field around a strike-slip fault in orthotropic elastic layers via a hypersingular integral equation

Abstract

This paper studies a vertical strike-slip fault in a layered orthotropic elastic medium perfectly bonded to a rigid foundation. Using elastic analysis of antiplane shear deformation, the strike-slip fault is converted to a mode III crack problem and the associated boundary value problem is reduced to triple series equations by expanding elastic displacement as Fourier series. A hypersingular integral equation for elastic displacement jump across the fault is then derived. An approximate solution of the displacement jump is constructed in terms of Chebyshev polynomials. Full elastic displacement and stress distribution in a layered medium are obtained. The formulae for calculating stress intensity factors near the crack tips are presented for any loading. The effects of stress drop and coefficient of friction on the stress field around a strike-slip fault are discussed.