Modeling obliquely incident seismic wave propagation in rocks via the FDM-DEM coupling scheme: Algorithms and applications

Abstract

The incidence angle of seismic waves plays a pivotal role in the stability analysis of structures in near-field zones. Despite its importance, the application of obliquely incident seismic waves within models of discontinuous media has been limited. This study introduces a novel approach that integrates the oblique incidence of seismic waves into a coupled model employing both the Finite Difference Method (FDM) and the Discrete Element Method (DEM). We validate the accuracy of seismic wave propagation under oblique incidence in two FDM-DEM coupling models—overlapping coupling and interface coupling—through comparisons with theoretical solutions. For vertically incident seismic P-waves, both models yield similar results. However, under oblique incidence, the overlapping coupling model demonstrates superior accuracy, with a maximum error of approximately 4.217 %, compared to about 10 % in the interface coupling model. Our findings also show that while the relative sizes of particle diameter and overlap length minimally affect accuracy, the arrangement of particles markedly influences the results. Furthermore, we apply this method to a slope model to investigate the failure process, revealing that the nature of the sliding body shifts from tensile sliding to tensile ejection as the incidence angle increases.