Rupture simulation for an M7 Hayward fault event showing strong ground motions using SW4 (left) and resulting time synched evolution of building damage for a representative 12 story concrete building through coupling to OPENSEES and NEVADA (right). Hotter colors indicate larger ground motion and major building damage, respectively. Note the complex distribution of building damage.
EQSIM: Coupled End-to-End Earthquake Hazard and Risk Simulations
Contributed by David McCallen, University of Nevada, Reno and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Over the past five years an integrated, multidisciplinary team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have developed the EarthQuake SIMulation (EQSIM) framework for fault-to-structure, regional-scale earthquake simulations under the U.S. DOE Exascale Computing Project. The EQSIM application development project is focused on creating an unprecedented computational tool set and workflow for earthquake hazard and risk assessment. Starting with a set of existing codes - SW4 (the fourth-order, 3D seismic wave propagation model developed at LLNL), NEVADA (a nonlinear, finite displacement program for building earthquake response), and OPENSEES (a nonlinear finite-element program for coupled soil-structure interaction) - EQSIM has created an end-to-end capability to simulate from the initiation of fault rupture to site-specific ground motions and ultimately to infrastructure response. EQSIM’s ultimate goal is to remove computational limitations as a barrier to simulation-based scientific exploration, understanding earthquake phenomenology, and practical earthquake hazard and risk assessments.
To achieve EQSIM goals, the SW4 code has been substantially advanced ... [full article]
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