Soil Attenuation in Seismic Simulations: Implications for Vehicle Tracking
Abstract
This paper describes an implementation of broadband soil attenuation in finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations of seismic wave propagation from impulsive sources. We concentrate on the attenuation phenomenon, the computational approach, comparisons with results from non-attenuating soil models, and the impacts on range estimation. Results are based on our three dimensional viscoelastic FDTD code ptop, which allows impulsive and moving vehicle simulations over realistic heterogeneous geologies and surface topographies. Soil attenuation refers to the decay of seismic energy by intrinsic material losses in soil. It can reduce the amplitude of propagating waves and shift the frequency of signal energy, thus affecting vehicle range estimates and seismic signatures. Relative to other attenuation factors, i.e., geometric spreading and scattering, soil attenuation often dominates the total attenuation characteristics of seismic surface waves generated by moving vehicles.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA409508
Entities
People
- Mark L. Moran
- Roy J. Greenfield
- Stephen A. Ketcham
- Thomas S. Anderson
Organizations
- Engineer Research and Development Center