Elastic wave propagation in fractured media with spring-type and frictional contact deformation laws
Abstract
Elastic wave propagation in fractured media is relevant to applications such as analysis of seismic waves and non-destructive characterization of materials. Understanding attenuation and scattering behavior arising from wave-fracture interaction is important for interpreting observations at both field and laboratory scales. This work presents a computational method for elastic wave propagation in fractured media based on a mixed-dimensional discrete fracture-matrix representation. Fracture deformation is governed by four models of increasing complexity, ranging from widely used spring-based formulations to frictional fracture contact models. Many previous studies are restricted to simplified wave fields, single fractures or subsets of the relevant fracture deformation mechanisms. In contrast, the proposed methodology enables fully coupled simulation of elastic wave propagation with fracture deformation models that account for elastic normal deformation, frictional contact and fracture opening and closure. The elastic wave equation is discretized in space using the cell-centered finite volume method Multi-Point Stress Approximation with weak symmetry and in time using the Newmark method. The spatial discretization is locally conservative and applicable to general polyhedral grids, making it well suited for media containing fractures, material heterogeneities and anisotropy. The proposed methodology is verified through numerical convergence analyses and is subsequently applied to wave propagation and fracture deformation in two- and three-dimensional media containing multiple intersecting fractures, demonstrating the influence of fracture constitutive behavior on wave transmission, scattering and fracture deformation.
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BibTeX
@misc{jacobsen2026elastic,
title = {{Elastic wave propagation in fractured media with spring-type and frictional contact deformation laws}},
author = {Ingrid Kristine Jacobsen and Jan Martin Nordbotten and Ivar Stefansson and Barbara Wohlmuth and Inga Berre},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.16460},
eprint = {2608.16460},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.16460},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Elastic wave propagation in fractured media with spring-type and frictional contact deformation laws
AU - Ingrid Kristine Jacobsen
AU - Jan Martin Nordbotten
AU - Ivar Stefansson
AU - Barbara Wohlmuth
AU - Inga Berre
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.16460
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.16460
AB - Elastic wave propagation in fractured media is relevant to applications such as analysis of seismic waves and non-destructive characterization of materials. Understanding attenuation and scattering behavior arising from wave-fracture interaction is important for interpreting observations at both field and laboratory scales. This work presents a computational method for elastic wave propagation in fractured media based on a mixed-dimensional discrete fracture-matrix representation. Fracture deformation is governed by four models of increasing complexity, ranging from widely used spring-based formulations to frictional fracture contact models. Many previous studies are restricted to simplified wave fields, single fractures or subsets of the relevant fracture deformation mechanisms. In contrast, the proposed methodology enables fully coupled simulation of elastic wave propagation with fracture deformation models that account for elastic normal deformation, frictional contact and fracture opening and closure. The elastic wave equation is discretized in space using the cell-centered finite volume method Multi-Point Stress Approximation with weak symmetry and in time using the Newmark method. The spatial discretization is locally conservative and applicable to general polyhedral grids, making it well suited for media containing fractures, material heterogeneities and anisotropy. The proposed methodology is verified through numerical convergence analyses and is subsequently applied to wave propagation and fracture deformation in two- and three-dimensional media containing multiple intersecting fractures, demonstrating the influence of fracture constitutive behavior on wave transmission, scattering and fracture deformation.
ER -