Finite element analysis on a circular wedge prism with 400 mm diameter

The paper comprehensively analyzes the distortions of a circular wedge prism with 400 mm diameter in a scanner by method of optical-mechanical-thermal integrating analysis. The structure and intensity of the prism assembly is verified and checked, and the surface deformations of the prism under gravity load, as well as the thermo-elastic distortions of the prism, are analyzed in detail and evaluated, which is finally contrasted with the measured values of Zygo Mark interferometer. The results show: the maximal distortion of the prism assembly is 10 nm magnitude and the maximal stress is 0.441 Mpa, which has much tolerance to the precision requirement of structure and the admissible stress of material; the influence of heat effect on the surface deformations of prism is proved to be far greater than the influence of gravity load, so some strict temperature-controlled measures are to be considered when the scanner is used. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

Finite-Element Simulations of Earthquakes

This thesis discusses simulations of earthquake ground motions using prescribed ruptures and dynamic failure. Introducing sliding degrees of freedom led to an innovative technique for numerical modeling of earthquake sources. This technique allows efficient implementation of both prescribed ruptures and dynamic failure on an arbitrarily oriented fault surface. Off the fault surface the solution of the three-dimensional, dynamic elasticity equation uses well known finite-element techniques. We employ parallel processing to efficiently compute the ground motions in domains containing millions of degrees of freedom.

Using prescribed ruptures we study the sensitivity of long-period near-source ground motions to five earthquake source parameters for hypothetical events on a strike-slip fault (M_w 7.0 to 7.1) and a thrust fault (M_w 6.6 to 7.0). The directivity of the ruptures creates large displacement and velocity pulses in the ground motions in the forward direction. We found a good match between the severity of the shaking and the shape of the near-source factor from the 1997 Uniform Building Code for strike-slip faults and thrust faults with surface rupture. However, for blind thrust faults the peak displacement and velocities occur up-dip from the region with the peak near-source factor. We assert that a simple modification to the formulation of the near-source factor improves the match between the severity of the ground motion and the shape of the near-source factor.

For simulations with dynamic failure on a strike-slip fault or a thrust fault, we examine what constraints must be imposed on the coefficient of friction to produce realistic ruptures under the application of reasonable shear and normal stress distributions with depth. We found that variation of the coefficient of friction with the shear modulus and the depth produces realistic rupture behavior in both homogeneous and layered half-spaces. Furthermore, we observed a dependence of the rupture speed on the direction of propagation and fluctuations in the rupture speed and slip rate as the rupture encountered changes in the stress field. Including such behavior in prescribed ruptures would yield more realistic ground motions.