Resolving Strain Localization of Brittle and Ductile Deformation in two- and three-dimensions using Graphical Processing Units (GPUs)

TL;DR

This paper introduces a GPU-based numerical method to model shear strain localization in 2D and 3D, capturing complex deformation patterns in geophysical materials with high computational efficiency and relevance to earthquake physics.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel GPU-accelerated approach for simulating strain localization in visco-elasto-plastic media, enabling high-resolution 3D modeling with over 500 million degrees of freedom.

Findings

GPU method resolves non-symmetric strain patterns

Elasto-plastic and visco-plastic models produce similar localization

Fast computation of high-resolution 3D models

Abstract

Shear strain localization refers to the phenomenon of accumulation of material deformation in narrow slip zones. Many materials exhibit strain localization under different spatial and temporal scales, particularly rocks, metals, soils, and concrete. In the Earth's crust, irreversible deformation can occur in brittle as well as in ductile regimes. Modeling of shear zones is essential in the geodynamic framework. Numerical modeling of strain localization remains challenging due to the non-linearity and multi-scale nature of the problem. We develop a numerical approach based on graphical processing units (GPU) to resolve the strain localization in two and three dimensions of a (visco)-hypoelastic-perfectly plastic medium. Our approach allows modeling both the compressible and incompressible visco-elasto-plastic flows. We demonstrate that using sufficiently small strain or strain rate increments, a non-symmetric strain localization pattern is resolved in two- and three-dimensions. We show that elasto-plastic and visco-plastic models yield similar strain localization patterns for material properties relevant to applications in geodynamics. We achieve fast computations using three-dimensional high-resolution models involving more than $500$ million degrees of freedom. We propose a new physics-based approach explaining spontaneous stress drops in a deforming medium. We demonstrate by coupling the geomechanical model with a wave propagation solver that the rapid development of a shear zone in rocks generates seismic signal characteristics for earthquakes.