Abstract:
GeoFEST (Geophysical Finite Element Simulation Tool) is a two- and three-dimensional finite element software package for the modeling of solid stress and strain in geophysical and other continuum domain applications. GeoFEST uses stress-displacement finite elements to model stress and strain due to elastic static response to an earthquake event in the region of the slipping fault, the
... time-dependent viscoelastic relaxation, and the net effects from a series of earthquakes.
The program uses input and output in the form of formatted plain text files; the data formats can be adapted to accommodate visualization and graphically oriented i/o. The computational engine of the program employs Crout factorization for the direct inversion of the finite element matrices as well as conjugate gradient for an iterative solution option. The physics models supported by the code include isotropic linear elasticity and both Newtonian and power-law viscoelasticity, via implicit/explicit quasi-static time stepping. In addition to triangular, quadrilateral, tetrahedral and hexahedral continuum elements, the program supports split-node faulting, body forces and surface tractions. Capabilities under development include frictional faulting and buoyancy driving. Scientific applications of the code include the modeling of static and transient co- and post-seismic earth deformation, Earth response to glacial, atmospheric and hydrological loading, and other scenarios involving the bulk deformation of geologic media.
The program source is written in C, and is targeted to be compiled and run on UNIX systems, and on diverse UNIX derivatives including LINUX, HPUX, and SunOS. 
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