Elastic wave propagation in anisotropic solids using energy-stable finite differences with weakly enforced boundary and interface conditions

Highlights: • New boundary and interface treatments for anisotropic elastic wave equations. • Proofs of energy stability and discrete self-adjointness. • Application problems in elastodynamic cloaking and seismic imaging. Summation-by-parts (SBP) finite difference methods have several desirable properties for second-order wave equations. They combine the computational efficiency of narrow-stencil finite difference operators with provable stability on curvilinear multiblock grids. While several techniques for boundary and interface conditions exist, weak imposition via simultaneous approximation terms (SATs) is perhaps the most flexible one. Although SBP methods have been applied to elastic wave equations many times, an SBP-SAT method for general anisotropic elastic wave equations has not yet been presented in the literature. We fill this gap by deriving energy-stable self-adjoint SBP-SAT methods for general anisotropic materials on curvilinear multiblock grids. The methods are based on fully compatible SBP operators. Although this paper focuses on classical SBP finite difference operators, the presented boundary and interface treatments are general and apply to a range of methods that satisfy an SBP property. We demonstrate the stability and accuracy properties of a particular set of fully compatible SBP-SAT schemes using the method of manufactured solutions. We also demonstrate the utility of the new method in elastodynamic cloaking and seismic imaging in mountainous regions.