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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2007; v. 289; p. 161-186;
DOI: 10.1144/SP289.10
© 2007 Geological Society of London

Articles

Insights into the faulting process from numerical simulations of rock-layer bending

G. D. Couples1,2, H. Lewis1,2, P. Olden1,2, G. H. Workman3 & N. G. Higgs4

1 Institute of Petroleum Engineering, Heriot–Watt University, Edinburgh EH14 4AS, UK (e-mail: gary.couples{at}pet.hw.ac.uk)
2 ECOSSE (Edinburgh Collaborative of Subsurface Science and Engineering), a part of the Edinburgh Research Partnership in Engineering and Mathematics
3 Applied Mechanics Inc., 3431 Bayou Court, Longboat Key, FL 34228, USA
4 Higgs–Palmer Technologies LLC, Remington Tower, Suite 707, 5810 East Skelly Drive, Tulsa, OK 74135, USA

An elastic–plastic material model, with strain-hardening or -softening, and volumetric strains, implemented within a general-purpose finite-element system (SAVFEMTM), is shown to reproduce the stress–strain relationships and localized to de-localized (brittle to ductile) changes in strain response that have long been observed in typical laboratory experiments on common porous rocks. Based on that validation of the implementation, SAVFEMTM is then used to create numerical simulations that reproduce the patterns of localized shear zones, and their growth history, that occur in experimental (physical) models of fold–fault systems in layered rocks. These simulations involve a progressive evolution of the mechanical state, illustrating a geometrically dominated type of localization behaviour. Part of the deformation simulated here represents a crestal graben system. Analysis of the evolving mechanical state in the system of simulated faults poses challenges to some longstanding ideas concerning the way that faults operate, suggesting the need for a new fault-process paradigm.





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