An Efficient Discontinuous Galerkin Method Using a Tetrahedral Mesh for 3D Seismic Wave Modeling

ABSTRACT The discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is a numerical algorithm that is widely used in various fields. It has high accuracy and low numerical dispersion with advantages of easy handling boundary conditions and good parallel performance. In this study, we develop an efficient parallel weighted Runge–Kutta discontinuous Galerkin (WRKDG) method on unstructured meshes for solving 3D seismic wave equations. The DG method we use is based on the first-order formulation of a hyperbolic system with an explicit weighted Runge–Kutta time discretization. We describe the numerical scheme and parallel implementation in detail, and analyze the stability condition and numerical dispersion and dissipation. We carry out a convergence test on unstructured meshes and investigate the parallel efficiency of the implementation of the WRKDG method. The speedup curve shows that the method has good parallel performance. Finally, we present several numerical simulation examples, including acoustic and elastic wave propagations in isotropic and anisotropic media. Numerical results further verify the effectiveness of the WRKDG method in solving 3D wave propagation problems.