Computational Seismology
Finite Differences Method - Acoustic Waves in 2D

This notebook is part of the supplementary material to Computational Seismology: A Practical Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2016.

Authors:

This notebook covers the following aspects:

  • implementation of the 2D acoustic wave equation
  • understanding the input parameters for the simulation and the plots that are generated
  • understanding the concepts of stability (Courant criterion)
  • modifying source and receiver locations and observing the effects on the seismograms
  • allowing you to explore the finite-difference method

Getting started

Before you start, make a copy of the original notebook (e.g., orig.ipynb). Now, run all of the code. Understand the input parameters for the simulation and the plots that are generated. We may modify source and receiver locations and observe the effects on the seismograms. Finally, we can relate the time extrapolation loop with the numerical algorithm we developed.

Stability (Courant criterion)

Now, we introduce parameter epsilon $\epsilon$ and we want to calculate the Courant criterion. Determine numerically the stability limit of the code as accurately as possible by increasing the time step.

The Courant criterion is defined as

$$ \epsilon = c \frac{ dt}{dx} \leq 1 $$

With this information we can calculate the maximum possible and stable time step.

Analytical Solution

In the code below we present the analytical solution for the acoustic wave equation

$$ \partial_t^2 p(x,t) \ - \ c^2 \Delta p(x,t) \ = s(x,t) $$

assuming constant velocity c and infinite space. Note that in 1D and 2D this equation is mathematically equivalent to the problem of SH wave propagation (i.e., shear waves polarised perpendicular to the plane through source and receiver). In 3D it is (only) descriptive of pressure (sound) waves.

Analytical solution for inhomogeneous partial differential equations (i.e., with non-zero source terms) are usually developed using the concept of Green's functions $G(x, t; x_0, t_0)$. Green's functions are the solutions to the specific partial differential equations for $\delta$-function as source terms evaluated at $(x, t)$ and activated at $(x_0, t_0)$. Thus, we seek solutions to

$$ \partial_t^2 G(x,t;x_0, t_0) \ - \ c^2 \Delta G(x,t;x_0, t_0) \ = \delta (x-x_0) \delta (t-t_0) $$

where $\Delta$ is the Laplace operator. We recall the definition of the $\delta-$function as a generalised function with

$$ \delta(x) = \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} \infty &x=0 \\ 0 &x\neq 0 \end{array} \right. $$

and

$$ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\delta(x)dx\ = \ 1 \ , \ \int_{-\infty}^{\infty}f(x)\delta(x)dx\ = \ f(0) \ $$

When comparing numerical with analytical solutions the functions that - in the limit - lead to the $\delta-$function will become very important. An example is the boxcar function

$$ \delta_{bc}(x) = \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 1/dx &|x|\leq dx/2 \\ 0 &\text{elsewhere} \end{array} \right. $$

fulfilling these properties as $dx\rightarrow0$. These functions are used to properly scale the source terms to obtain correct absolute amplitudes.

To describe analytical solutions for the acoustic wave equation we also make use of the unit step function, also known as the Heaviside function, defined as

$$ H(x) = \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} 0 &x<0 \\ 1 &x \geq 0 \end{array} \right. $$

The Heaviside function is the integral of the $\delta-$function (and vice-versa the $\delta$-function is defined as the derivative of the Heaviside function). In 2D case, the Green's function is

$$ G = \frac{1}{2\pi c^2}\frac{H(t-\frac{|r|}{c})}{\sqrt{t^2-\frac{r^2}{c^2}}} $$$$ r = \sqrt{x^2+y^2} $$

A special situation occurs in 2D. An impulsive source leads to a waveform with a coda that decreases with time. This is a consequence of the fact that the source actually is a line source. From a computational point of view this is extremely important. Numerical solutions in 2D Cartesian coordinates cannot directly be compared to observations in which we usually have point sources.

Numerical Solution (Finite Differences Method)

In 2D the constant-density acoustic wave equation is given by

$$ \ddot{p}(x,z,t) \ = \ c(x,z)^2 (\partial_x^2 p(x,z,t) + \partial_z^2 p(x,z,t)) \ + s(x,z,t) $$

where the $z$-coordinate is chosen because in many applications the $x-z$ plane is considered a vertical plane with $z$ as depth coordinate. In accordance with the above developments we discretise space-time using

$$ p(x,z,t) \ \rightarrow \ p^n_{i,j} \ = \ p(n dt, i dx, j dz) \ . $$

Using the 3-point operator for the 2nd derivatives in time leads us to the extrapolation scheme

$$ \frac{p_{i,j}^{n+1} - 2 p_{i,j}^n + p_{i,j}^{n-1}}{dt^2} \ = \ c^2 ( \partial_x^2 p + \partial_z^2 p) \ + s_{i,j}^n $$

where on the r.h.s. the space and time dependencies are implicitly assumed and the partial derivatives are approximated by

\begin{equation} \begin{split} \partial_x^2 p \ &= \ \frac{p_{i+1,j}^{n} - 2 p_{i,j}^n + p_{i-1,j}^{n}}{dx^2} \\ \partial_z^2 p \ &= \ \frac{p_{i,j+1}^{n} - 2 p_{i,j}^n + p_{i,j-1}^{n}}{dz^2} \ . \end{split} \end{equation}

Note that for a regular 2D grid $dz=dx$

Analytical and Numerical Comparisons

The code below is given with a 3-point difference operator. Compare the results from numerical simulation with the 3-point operator with the analytical solution.

High-order operators

Extend the code by adding the option to use a 5-point difference operator. The 5-pt weights are: $ [-1/12, 4/3, -5/2, 4/3, -1/12]/dx^2 $. Compare simulations with the 3-point and 5-point operators.

In [1]:
# Import Libraries (PLEASE RUN THIS CODE FIRST!) 
# ----------------------------------------------
import numpy as np
import matplotlib
# Show Plot in The Notebook
matplotlib.use("nbagg")
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Sub-plot Configuration
# ----------------------
from matplotlib import gridspec 
from mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1 import make_axes_locatable

# Ignore Warning Messages
# -----------------------
import warnings
warnings.filterwarnings("ignore")
In [2]:
# Parameter Configuration 
# -----------------------

nx   = 500          # number of grid points in x-direction
nz   = nx           # number of grid points in z-direction
# Note: regular 2D grid, dz = dx
dx   = 1.           # grid point distance in x-direction
dz   = dx           # grid point distance in z-direction
c0   = 580.         # wave velocity in medium (m/s)
isx  = 250          # source location in grid in x-direction
isz  = isx          # source location in grid in z-direction
irx  = 330          # receiver location in grid in x-direction
irz  = isz          # receiver location in grid in z-direction
nt   = 502          # maximum number of time steps
dt   = 0.0010       # time step

# CFL Stability Criterion
# -----------------------
eps  = c0 * dt / dx # epsilon value

print('Stability criterion =', eps)

Stability criterion = 0.58
In [3]:
# Plot Source Time Function 
# -------------------------

f0   = 40. # dominant frequency of the source (Hz)
t0   = 4. / f0 # source time shift

print('Source frequency =', f0, 'Hz')

# Source time function (Gaussian)
# -------------------------------
src  = np.zeros(nt + 1)
time = np.linspace(0 * dt, nt * dt, nt)
# 1st derivative of a Gaussian
src  = -2. * (time - t0) * (f0 ** 2) * (np.exp(-1.0 * (f0 ** 2) * (time - t0) ** 2))

# Plot Position Configuration
# ---------------------------
plt.ion()
fig1 = plt.figure(figsize=(12, 6))
gs1  = gridspec.GridSpec(1, 2, width_ratios=[1, 1], hspace=0.3, wspace=0.3)

# Plot Source Time Function
# -------------------------
ax1  = plt.subplot(gs1[0])
ax1.plot(time, src) # plot source time function
ax1.set_title('Source Time Function')
ax1.set_xlim(time[0], time[-1])
ax1.set_xlabel('Time (s)')
ax1.set_ylabel('Amplitude')

# Plot Source Spectrum
# --------------------
ax2  = plt.subplot(gs1[1])
spec = np.fft.fft(src) # source time function in frequency domain
freq = np.fft.fftfreq(spec.size, d = dt / 4.) # time domain to frequency domain
ax2.plot(np.abs(freq), np.abs(spec)) # plot frequency and amplitude
ax2.set_xlim(0, 250) # only display frequency from 0 to 250 Hz
ax2.set_title('Source Spectrum')
ax2.set_xlabel('Frequency (Hz)')

ax2.yaxis.tick_right()
ax2.yaxis.set_label_position("right")

plt.show()

Source frequency = 40.0 Hz
In [4]:
# Plot Snapshot & Seismogram (PLEASE RERUN THIS CODE AGAIN AFTER SIMULATION!) 
# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Initialize Empty Pressure
# -------------------------
p    = np.zeros((nz, nx)) # p at time n (now)
pold = np.zeros((nz, nx)) # p at time n-1 (past)
pnew = np.zeros((nz, nx)) # p at time n+1 (present)
d2px = np.zeros((nz, nx)) # 2nd space derivative of p in x-direction
d2pz = np.zeros((nz, nx)) # 2nd space derivative of p in z-direction

# Initialize Velocity Model (assume homogeneous model)
# ----------------------------------------------------
c    = np.zeros((nz, nx))
c    = c + c0             # initialize wave velocity in model

# Initialize Grid
x    = np.arange(nx)
x    = x * dx             # coordinate in x-direction
z    = np.arange(nz)
z    = z * dz             # coordinate in z-direction

# Initialize Empty Seismogram
# ---------------------------
seis = np.zeros(nt)

# Analytical Solution 
# -------------------
G    = time * 0.
r    = np.sqrt((x[isx] - x[irx]) ** 2 + (z[isz] - z[irz]) ** 2)

for it in range(nt): # Calculate Green's function
    if ((time[it] - np.abs(x[irx] - x[isx]) / c0) >= 0):
        G[it] = (1. / (2 * np.pi * c0 ** 2)) \
        * (1. / np.sqrt((time[it] ** 2) - (r ** 2 / (c0 ** 2))))
Gc   = np.convolve(G, src * dt)
Gc   = Gc[0:nt]
lim  = Gc.max() # get limit value from maximum amplitude of analytical solution

# Plot Position Configuration
# ---------------------------
plt.ion()
fig2 = plt.figure(figsize=(12, 6))
gs2  = gridspec.GridSpec(1, 2, width_ratios=[1, 1], hspace=0.3, wspace=0.3)

# Plot 2D Wave Propagation
# ------------------------
# Note: comma is needed to update the variable
ax3  = plt.subplot(gs2[0])
leg1,= ax3.plot(isx, isz, 'r*', markersize=11) # plot position of the source in model
leg2,= ax3.plot(irx, irz, 'k^', markersize=8)  # plot position of the receiver in model
im3  = ax3.imshow(p, vmin=-lim, vmax=+lim, interpolation="nearest", cmap=plt.cm.RdBu)
div  = make_axes_locatable(ax3)
cax  = div.append_axes("right", size="5%", pad=0.05) # size & position of colorbar
fig2.colorbar(im3, cax=cax) # plot colorbar
ax3.set_title('Time Step (nt) = 0')
ax3.set_xlim(0, nx)
ax3.set_ylim(0, nz)
ax3.set_xlabel('nx')
ax3.set_ylabel('nz')
ax3.legend((leg1, leg2), ('Source', 'Receiver'), loc='upper right', fontsize=10, numpoints=1)

# Plot Seismogram 
# ---------------
# Note: comma is needed to update the variable
ax4  = plt.subplot(gs2[1])
up41,= ax4.plot(time, seis) # update seismogram each time step
up42,= ax4.plot([0], [0], 'r|', markersize=15) # update time step position
ax4.set_xlim(time[0], time[-1])
ax4.set_title('Seismogram')
ax4.set_xlabel('Time [s]')
ax4.set_ylabel('Amplitude')
leg3,= ax4.plot(0,0,'r--',markersize=1)
leg4,= ax4.plot(0,0,'b-',markersize=1)
ax4.legend((leg3, leg4), ('Analytical', 'FD'), loc='upper right', fontsize=10, numpoints=1)

ax4.yaxis.tick_right()
ax4.yaxis.set_label_position("right")

plt.plot(time,Gc,'r--')
plt.show()
In [ ]:

Solutions:

In [5]:
# 2D Wave Propagation (Finite Difference Solution) 
# ------------------------------------------------

# Point Operator (choose 3 or 5 point operator)
# ---------------------------------------------
op   = 5 
print(op, '- point operator')

# Calculate Partial Derivatives
# -----------------------------
for it in range(nt):
    if op == 3: # use 3 point operator FD scheme
        for i in range(1, nx - 1):
                d2px[i, :] = (p[i - 1, :] - 2 * p[i, :] + p[i + 1, :]) / dx ** 2 
        for j in range(1, nz - 1):
                d2pz[:, j] = (p[:, j - 1] - 2 * p[:, j] + p[:, j + 1]) / dz ** 2 
    
    if op == 5: # use 5 point operator FD scheme
        for i in range(2, nx - 2):
                d2px[i, :] = (-1./12 * p[i + 2,:] +4./3  * p[i + 1,:] -5./2 * p[i,:] \
                              +4./3  * p[i - 1,:] -1./12 * p[i - 2,:]) / dx ** 2 
        for j in range(2, nz - 2):
                d2pz[:, j] = (-1./12 * p[:,j + 2] +4./3  * p[:,j + 1] -5./2 * p[:,j] \
                              +4./3  * p[:,j - 1] -1./12 * p[:,j - 2]) / dz ** 2 
    
    # Time Extrapolation
    # ------------------
    pnew = 2 * p - pold + (c ** 2) * (dt ** 2) * (d2pz + d2px)
    
    # Add Source Term at isz and isx
    # ------------------------------
    # Absolute pressure w.r.t analytical solution
    pnew[isz, isx] = pnew[isz, isx] + src[it] / (dx * dz) * (dt ** 2) 
    
    # Remap Time Levels
    # -----------------
    pold, p = p, pnew
    
    # Output Seismogram
    # -----------------
    seis[it] = p[irz, irx]
    
    # Update Data for Wave Propagation Plot
    # -------------------------------------
    idisp = 5 # display frequency
    if (it % idisp) == 0:
        ax3.set_title('Time Step (nt) = %d' % it)
        ax3.imshow(p,vmin=-lim, vmax=+lim, interpolation="nearest", cmap=plt.cm.RdBu)
        up41.set_ydata(seis)
        up42.set_data(time[it], seis[it])
        plt.gcf().canvas.draw()

5 - point operator
In [ ]: