A new approach to simulate scattering of SH waves by an irregular topography

Abstract

We propose a new approach to study the scattering problem of seismic waves by an irregular topography. It is rooted in the Bouchon-Campillo method that can provide accurate enough solutions for most of the problems, but the expensive computation cost, especially for the high-frequency problem, limited its application. In this study, we develop a new approach to study seismic waves scattering problem by an irregular topography, in which only those sampling points over the irregular part of surface topography are directly solved; thus the number of unknowns is greatly reduced. Comparisons with analytical solution and other existing validated methods show the computational efficiency of our new method is much superior to the original Bouchon-Campillo method, and is expected to be a powerful tool in simulating the seismic wave scattering problem by an arbitrary topography. © 2006 RAS.