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Full documentation for the GROMACS 2023.2 release version.

SUMMARY Physics-based simulations provide a path to overcome the lack of observational data hampering a holistic understanding of earthquake faulting and crustal deformation across the vastly varying space–time scales governing the seismic cycle. However, simulations of sequences of earthquakes and aseismic slip (SEAS) including the complex geometries and heterogeneities of the subsurface are challenging. We present a symmetric interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin (SIPG) method to perform SEAS simulations accounting for the aforementioned challenges. Due to the discontinuous nature of the approximation, the spatial discretization natively provides a means to impose boundary and interface conditions. The method accommodates 2-D and 3-D domains, is of arbitrary order, handles subelement variations in material properties and supports isoparametric elements, that is, high-order representations of the exterior boundaries, interior material interfaces and embedded faults. We provide an open-source reference implementation, Tandem, that utilizes highly efficient kernels for evaluating the SIPG linear and bilinear forms, is inherently parallel and well suited to perform high-resolution simulations on large-scale distributed memory architectures. Additional flexibility and efficiency is provided by optionally defining the displacement evaluation via a discrete Green’s function approach, exploiting advantages of both the boundary integral and volumetric methods. The optional discrete Green’s functions are evaluated once in a pre-computation stage using algorithmically optimal and scalable sparse parallel solvers and pre-conditioners. We illustrate the characteristics of the SIPG formulation via an extensive suite of verification problems (analytic, manufactured and code comparison) for elastostatic and quasi-dynamic problems. Our verification suite demonstrates that high-order convergence of the discrete solution can be achieved in space and time and highlights the benefits of using a high-order representation of the displacement, material properties and geometries. We apply Tandem to realistic demonstration models consisting of a 2-D SEAS multifault scenario on a shallowly dipping normal fault with four curved splay faults, and a 3-D intersecting multifault scenario of elastostatic instantaneous displacement of the 2019 Ridgecrest, CA, earthquake sequence. We exploit the curvilinear geometry representation in both application examples and elucidate the importance of accurate stress (or displacement gradient) representation on-fault. This study entails several methodological novelties. We derive a sharp bound on the smallest value of the SIPG penalty ensuring stability for isotropic, elastic materials; define a new flux to incorporate embedded faults in a standard SIPG scheme; employ a hybrid multilevel pre-conditioner for the discrete elasticity problem; and demonstrate that curvilinear elements are specifically beneficial for volumetric SEAS simulations. We show that our method can be applied for solving interesting geophysical problems using massively parallel computing. Finally, this is the first time a discontinuous Galerkin method is published for the numerical simulations of SEAS, opening new avenues to pursue extreme scale 3-D SEAS simulations in the future.

SeisSol is a well-established simulation tool for seismic wave propagation and earthquake source dynamics at extreme scale. To be able to simulate more realistic scenarios additional material models are needed. In my PhD project I extend SeisSol to anisotropic and poroelastic materials. Anisotropy is the generalization of isotropic material behavior. In contrast to isotropy the wave velocities depend on the direction of propagation. Where the Riemann problem can be solved analytically for isotropic materials, in the anisotropic case we need a numerical solver. In poroelastic media an elastic frame interacts with a fluid, which fills the pores. The coupling between fluid and solid is modeled through a source-term, that renders the system of equations stiff. To overcome the stability issues, we introduce an element-local space-time predictor. The update scheme now requires the solution of a linear system with a few thousand unknowns. This system has to be solved for every element in the mesh. To solve this element-local system efficiently, we employ the block triangular structure of the system. The solution procedure consists of a sequence of matrix-matrix multiplications. Code generation is used to achieve high performance. Wave propagation in anisotropic media is validated and fully supported by SeisSol. Currently, we are validating the simulation results for the poroelastic case against various benchmark tests. After the wave propagation part is validated, source mechanisms in poroelastic and anisotropic material will be investigated.

Simulations of realistic earthquake scenarios require scalable software and extensive supercomputing resources. With increasing fidelity in simulations, advanced rheological and source models need to be incorporated. I introduce a domain-specific language in order to handle the model flexibility in combination with the high efficiency requirements. The contributions in this thesis enabled the to date largest and longest dynamic rupture simulation of the 2004 Sumatra earthquake. Realistische Erdbebensimulationen benötigen skalierbare Software und beträchtliche Rechenressourcen. Mit zunehmender Genauigkeit der Simulationen müssen fortschrittliche rheologische und Quellmodelle integriert werden. Ich führe eine domänenspezifische Sprache ein, um die Modelflexibilität in Kombination mit den hohen Effizienzanforderungen zu beherrschen. Die Beiträge in dieser Arbeit haben die bisher größte und längste dynamische Bruchsimulation des Sumatra-Erdbebens von 2004 ermöglicht.