Seismic wave modeling in viscoelastic VTI media using spectral element method

Spectral element method (SEM) for elastic media is well known for its great flexibility and high accuracy in solving problems with complex geometries. It is an advanced choice for wave simulations. Due to anelasticity of earth media, SEM for elastic media is no longer appropriate. On fundamental of the second-order elastic SEM, this work takes the viscoelastic wave equations and the vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) media into consideration, and establishes the second-order SEM for wave modeling in viscoelastic VTI media. The second-order perfectly matched layer for viscoelastic VTI media is also introduced. The problem of handling the overlapped absorbed corners is solved. A comparison with the analytical solution in a two-dimensional viscoelastic homogeneous medium shows that the method is accurate in the wave-field modeling. Furtherly, numerical validation also presents its great flexibility in solving wave propagation problems in complex heterogeneous media. This second-order SEM with perfectly matched layer for viscoelastic VTI media can be easily applied in wave modeling in a limited region.