In this regard, the fault surface is discretized using different elements, namely, constant discontinuous elements with various sizes, and first order contentious elements with different sizes. In order of parameterization, a bilinear interpolation technique is introduced to represent variation of source parameters within the subfault area. | JSEE Vol. 19, No. 4, 2017 Source Parameterization of Finite Faults in Earthquake Ground Motion Simulation Ameneh HoushmandViki 1 and Anoushiravan Ansari 2* Received: 18/12/2017 1. . Student, Geophysics, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology (IIEES), Tehran, Iran 2. Associate Professor, Seismological Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Tehran, Iran, * Corresponding Author; email: Accepted: 11/04/2018 AB S T RA CT Keywords: Interpolation, h-p notion, Parkfield earthquake, Goodness-of- fit, Finite fault simulation The effect of interpolation function for describing spatial variations of slip on the fault surface is investigated using finite fault simulation. In analogy with h-p notion in finite element method, the effect of increasing the order of interpolation function and decreasing the size of elements is studied here. In this regard, the fault surface is discretized using different elements, namely, constant discontinuous elements with various sizes, and first order contentious elements with different sizes. In order of parameterization, a bilinear interpolation technique is introduced to represent variation of source parameters within the subfault area. To provide an objective basis for comparison, the September 28, 2004 Parkfield earthquake Mw is considered and time-frequency, envelope-pha se goodness-of-fit criteria is calculated to compare synthetic and observed waveforms quantitatively in time and frequency domains. It was revealed that by increasing the order of interpolation function, the overall consistency of observed and synthetic waveforms will increase, while the expense of computational analyses will also increase accordingly. 1. Introduction Simulation of earthquake ground motion has a profound implications for seismological and engineering applications. From a seismological point of view, forward modeling provides bases for solving inverse
