Acoustic viscoelastic modeling by frequency-domain boundary element method

Abstract

Earth medium is not completely elastic, with its viscosity resulting in attenuation and dispersion of seismic waves. Most viscoelastic numerical simulations are based on the finite-difference and finite-element methods. Targeted at viscoelastic numerical modeling for multilayered media, the constant-Q acoustic wave equation is transformed into the corresponding wave integral representation with its Green’s function accounting for viscoelastic coefficients. An efficient alternative for full-waveform solution to the integral equation is proposed in this article by extending conventional frequency-domain boundary element methods to viscoelastic media. The viscoelastic boundary element method enjoys a distinct characteristic of the explicit use of boundary continuity conditions of displacement and traction, leading to a semi-analytical solution with sufficient accuracy for simulating the viscoelastic effect across irregular interfaces. Numerical experiments to study the viscoelastic absorption of different Q values demonstrate the accuracy and applicability of the method.