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Dimitri Komatitsch

Bio: Dimitri Komatitsch is an academic researcher from Aix-Marseille University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Spectral element method & Wave propagation. The author has an hindex of 49, co-authored 183 publications receiving 10896 citations. Previous affiliations of Dimitri Komatitsch include Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris & French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the spectral element method is used for the calculation of synthetic seismograms in 3D earth models using a weak formulation of the equations of motion, which are solved on a mesh of hexahedral elements.
Abstract: SUMMARY We present an introduction to the spectral element method, which provides an innovative numerical approach to the calculation of synthetic seismograms in 3-D earth models. The method combines the £exibility of a ¢nite element method with the accuracy of a spectral method. One uses a weak formulation of the equations of motion, which are solved on a mesh of hexahedral elements that is adapted to the free surface and to the main internal discontinuities of the model. The wave¢eld on the elements is discretized using high-degree Lagrange interpolants, and integration over an element is accomplished based upon the Gauss^Lobatto^Legendre integration rule. This combination of discretization and integration results in a diagonal mass matrix, which greatly simpli¢es the algorithm. We illustrate the great potential of the method by comparing it to a discrete wavenumber/re£ectivity method for layer-cake models. Both body and surface waves are accurately represented, and the method can handle point force as well as moment tensor sources. For a model with very steep surface topography we successfully benchmark the method against an approximate boundary technique. For a homogeneous medium with strong attenuation we obtain excellent agreement with the analytical solution for a point force.

1,184 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The spectral element method as discussed by the authors is a high-order variational method for the spatial approximation of elastic-wave equations, which can be used to simulate elastic wave propagation in realistic geological structures involving complieated free surface topography and material interfaces for two- and three-dimensional geometries.
Abstract: We present the spectral element method to simulate elastic-wave propagation in realistic geological structures involving complieated free-surface topography and material interfaces for two- and three-dimensional geometries. The spectral element method introduced here is a high-order variational method for the spatial approximation of elastic-wave equations. The mass matrix is diagonal by construction in this method, which drastically reduces the computational cost and allows an efficient parallel implementation. Absorbing boundary conditions are introduced in variational form to simulate unbounded physical domains. The time discretization is based on an energy-momentum conserving scheme that can be put into a classical explicit-implicit predictor/multi-corrector format. Long-term energy conservation and stability properties are illustrated as well as the efficiency of the absorbing conditions. The associated Courant condition behaves as Δ tC < O ( nel−1/nd N −2), with nel the number of elements, nd the spatial dimension, and N the polynomial order. In practice, a spatial sampling of approximately 5 points per wavelength is found to be very accurate when working with a polynomial degree of N = 8. The accuracy of the method is shown by comparing the spectral element solution to analytical solutions of the classical two-dimensional (2D) problems of Lamb and Garvin. The flexibility of the method is then illustrated by studying more realistic 2D models involving realistic geometries and complex free-boundary conditions. Very accurate modeling of Rayleigh-wave propagation, surface diffraction, and Rayleigh-to-body-wave mode conversion associated with the free-surface curvature are obtained at low computational cost. The method is shown to provide an efficient tool to study the diffraction of elastic waves by three-dimensional (3D) surface topographies and the associated local effects on strong ground motion. Complex amplification patterns, both in space and time, are shown to occur even for a gentle hill topography. Extension to a heterogeneous hill structure is considered. The efficient implementation on parallel distributed memory architectures will allow to perform real-time visualization and interactive physical investigations of 3D amplification phenomena for seismic risk assessment.

1,183 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a spectral-element method is used to simulate seismic wave propagation throughout the entire globe, which is based upon a weak formulation of the equations of motion and combines the flexibility of a finite element method with the accuracy of a global pseudospectral method.
Abstract: SUMMARY We use a spectral-element method to simulate seismic wave propagation throughout the entire globe. The method is based upon a weak formulation of the equations of motion and combines the flexibility of a finite-element method with the accuracy of a global pseudospectral method. The finite-element mesh honours all first- and second-order discontinuities in the earth model. To maintain a relatively constant resolution throughout the model in terms of the number of grid points per wavelength, the size of the elements is increased with depth in a conforming fashion, thus retaining a diagonal mass matrix. In the Earth’s mantle and inner core we solve the wave equation in terms of displacement, whereas in the liquid outer core we use a formulation based upon a scalar potential. The three domains are matched at the inner core and core‐ mantle boundaries, honouring the continuity of traction and the normal component of velocity. The effects of attenuation and anisotropy are fully incorporated. The method is implemented on a parallel computer using a message passing technique. We benchmark spectral-element synthetic seismograms against normal-mode synthetics for a spherically symmetric reference model. The two methods are in excellent agreement for all body- and surface-wave arrivals with periods greater than about 20 s.

798 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors demonstrate how to improve the perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary condition at grazing incidence for the differential seismic wave equation based on an unsplit convolution technique.
Abstract: The perfectly matched layer (PML) absorbing boundary condition has proven to be very efficient from a numerical point of view for the elastic wave equation to absorb both body waves with nongrazing incidence and surface waves. However, at grazing incidence the classical discrete PML method suffers from large spurious reflections that make it less efficient for instance in the case of very thin mesh slices, in the case of sources located close to the edge of the mesh, and/or in the case of receivers located at very large offset. We demonstrate how to improve the PML at grazing incidence for the differential seismic wave equation based on an unsplit convolution technique. The improved PML has a cost that is similar in terms of memory storage to that of the classical PML. We illustrate the efficiency of this improved convolutional PML based on numerical benchmarks using a finite-difference method on a thin mesh slice for an isotropic material and show that results are significantly improved compared with the classical PML technique. We also show that, as the classical PML, the convolutional technique is intrinsically unstable in the case of some anisotropic materials.

659 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors simulate global seismic wave propagation based upon a spectral-element method, including the full complexity of 3D Earth models, i.e. lateral variations in compressional-wave velocity, shear wave velocity and density, a 3D crustal model, ellipticity, as well as topography and bathymetry.
Abstract: SUMMARY We simulate global seismic wave propagation based upon a spectral-element method. We include the full complexity of 3-D Earth models, i.e. lateral variations in compressional-wave velocity, shear-wave velocity and density, a 3-D crustal model, ellipticity, as well as topography and bathymetry. We also include the effects of the oceans, rotation and self-gravitation in the context of the Cowling approximation. For the oceans we introduce a formulation based upon an equivalent load in which the oceans do not need to be meshed explicitly. Some of these effects, which are often considered negligible in global seismology, can in fact play a significant role for certain source‐receiver configurations. Anisotropy and attenuation, which were introduced and validated in a previous paper, are also incorporated in this study. The complex phenomena that are taken into account are introduced in such a way that we preserve the main advantages of the spectral-element method, which are an exactly diagonal mass matrix and very high computational efficiency on parallel computers. For self-gravitation and the oceans we benchmark spectral-element synthetic seismograms against normal-mode synthetics for the spherically symmetric reference model PREM. The two methods are in excellent agreement for all body- and surface-wave arrivals with periods greater than about 20 s in the case of self-gravitation and 25 s in the case of the oceans. At long periods the effect of gravity on multiorbit surface waves up to R4 is correctly reproduced. We subsequently present results of simulations for two real earthquakes in fully 3-D Earth models for which the fit to the data is significantly improved compared with classical normal-mode calculations based upon PREM. For example, we show that for trans-Pacific paths the Rayleigh wave can arrive more than a minute earlier than in PREM, and that the Love wave is much shorter in duration.

555 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review attempts to illuminate the state of the art of FWI by building accurate starting models with automatic procedures and/or recording low frequencies, and improving computational efficiency by data-compression techniquestomake3DelasticFWIfeasible.
Abstract: Full-waveform inversion FWI is a challenging data-fitting procedure based on full-wavefield modeling to extract quantitative information from seismograms. High-resolution imaging at half the propagated wavelength is expected. Recent advances in high-performance computing and multifold/multicomponent wide-aperture and wide-azimuth acquisitions make 3D acoustic FWI feasible today. Key ingredients of FWI are an efficient forward-modeling engine and a local differential approach, in which the gradient and the Hessian operators are efficiently estimated. Local optimization does not, however, prevent convergence of the misfit function toward local minima because of the limited accuracy of the starting model, the lack of low frequencies, the presence of noise, and the approximate modeling of the wave-physics complexity. Different hierarchical multiscale strategiesaredesignedtomitigatethenonlinearityandill-posedness of FWI by incorporating progressively shorter wavelengths in the parameter space. Synthetic and real-data case studies address reconstructing various parameters, from VP and VS velocities to density, anisotropy, and attenuation. This review attempts to illuminate the state of the art of FWI. Crucial jumps, however, remain necessary to make it as popular as migration techniques. The challenges can be categorized as 1 building accurate starting models with automatic procedures and/or recording low frequencies, 2 defining new minimization criteria to mitigate the sensitivity of FWI to amplitude errors and increasing the robustness of FWI when multiple parameter classes are estimated, and 3 improving computational efficiency by data-compression techniquestomake3DelasticFWIfeasible.

2,981 citations

Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1997
TL;DR: This chapter introduces the finite element method (FEM) as a tool for solution of classical electromagnetic problems and discusses the main points in the application to electromagnetic design, including formulation and implementation.
Abstract: This chapter introduces the finite element method (FEM) as a tool for solution of classical electromagnetic problems. Although we discuss the main points in the application of the finite element method to electromagnetic design, including formulation and implementation, those who seek deeper understanding of the finite element method should consult some of the works listed in the bibliography section.

1,820 citations

01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The numerical heat transfer and fluid flow is universally compatible with any devices to read and is available in the authors' digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly.
Abstract: Thank you for reading numerical heat transfer and fluid flow. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have search numerous times for their favorite books like this numerical heat transfer and fluid flow, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some malicious virus inside their computer. numerical heat transfer and fluid flow is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our books collection spans in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Merely said, the numerical heat transfer and fluid flow is universally compatible with any devices to read.

1,531 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the spectral element method is used for the calculation of synthetic seismograms in 3D earth models using a weak formulation of the equations of motion, which are solved on a mesh of hexahedral elements.
Abstract: SUMMARY We present an introduction to the spectral element method, which provides an innovative numerical approach to the calculation of synthetic seismograms in 3-D earth models. The method combines the £exibility of a ¢nite element method with the accuracy of a spectral method. One uses a weak formulation of the equations of motion, which are solved on a mesh of hexahedral elements that is adapted to the free surface and to the main internal discontinuities of the model. The wave¢eld on the elements is discretized using high-degree Lagrange interpolants, and integration over an element is accomplished based upon the Gauss^Lobatto^Legendre integration rule. This combination of discretization and integration results in a diagonal mass matrix, which greatly simpli¢es the algorithm. We illustrate the great potential of the method by comparing it to a discrete wavenumber/re£ectivity method for layer-cake models. Both body and surface waves are accurately represented, and the method can handle point force as well as moment tensor sources. For a model with very steep surface topography we successfully benchmark the method against an approximate boundary technique. For a homogeneous medium with strong attenuation we obtain excellent agreement with the analytical solution for a point force.

1,184 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The spectral element method as discussed by the authors is a high-order variational method for the spatial approximation of elastic-wave equations, which can be used to simulate elastic wave propagation in realistic geological structures involving complieated free surface topography and material interfaces for two- and three-dimensional geometries.
Abstract: We present the spectral element method to simulate elastic-wave propagation in realistic geological structures involving complieated free-surface topography and material interfaces for two- and three-dimensional geometries. The spectral element method introduced here is a high-order variational method for the spatial approximation of elastic-wave equations. The mass matrix is diagonal by construction in this method, which drastically reduces the computational cost and allows an efficient parallel implementation. Absorbing boundary conditions are introduced in variational form to simulate unbounded physical domains. The time discretization is based on an energy-momentum conserving scheme that can be put into a classical explicit-implicit predictor/multi-corrector format. Long-term energy conservation and stability properties are illustrated as well as the efficiency of the absorbing conditions. The associated Courant condition behaves as Δ tC < O ( nel−1/nd N −2), with nel the number of elements, nd the spatial dimension, and N the polynomial order. In practice, a spatial sampling of approximately 5 points per wavelength is found to be very accurate when working with a polynomial degree of N = 8. The accuracy of the method is shown by comparing the spectral element solution to analytical solutions of the classical two-dimensional (2D) problems of Lamb and Garvin. The flexibility of the method is then illustrated by studying more realistic 2D models involving realistic geometries and complex free-boundary conditions. Very accurate modeling of Rayleigh-wave propagation, surface diffraction, and Rayleigh-to-body-wave mode conversion associated with the free-surface curvature are obtained at low computational cost. The method is shown to provide an efficient tool to study the diffraction of elastic waves by three-dimensional (3D) surface topographies and the associated local effects on strong ground motion. Complex amplification patterns, both in space and time, are shown to occur even for a gentle hill topography. Extension to a heterogeneous hill structure is considered. The efficient implementation on parallel distributed memory architectures will allow to perform real-time visualization and interactive physical investigations of 3D amplification phenomena for seismic risk assessment.

1,183 citations