Dynamic faulting under slip-dependent friction in a linear elastic domain (in-plane and 3D configurations) is considered. The use of an implicit time-stepping scheme (Newmark method) allows much larger values of the time step than the critical CFL time step, and higher accuracy to handle the non-smoothness of the interface constitutive law (slip weakening friction).
The finite element form of the quasi-variational inequality is solved by a Schwarz domain decomposition method, by separating the inner nodes of the domain from the nodes on the fault. In this way, the quasi-variational inequality splits into two subproblems. The first one is a large linear system of equations, and its unknowns are related to the mesh nodes of the first subdomain (i.e. lying inside the domain). The unknowns of the second subproblem are the degrees of freedom of the mesh nodes of the second subdomain (i.e. lying on the domain boundary where the conditions of contact and friction are imposed). This nonlinear subproblem is solved by the same Schwarz algorithm, leading to some local nonlinear subproblems of a very small size.
Numerical experiments are performed to illustrate convergence in time and space, instability capturing, energy dissipation and the influence of normal stress variations. We have used the proposed numerical method to compute source dynamics phenomena on complex and realistic 2D fault models (branched fault systems).