Elastic wavefield modelling in 3D by fourth-order staggered- grid finite difference technique

Modern computational power makes possible realistic simulations of elastic wavefields at frequencies of interest. The most general numerical methods for modelling are grid-based techniques that track the wavefield on a dense 3D grid of points, e.g. the finite-difference, finite-element and pseudospectral methods. The study of wavefield propagation with 3D finite-difference methods has contributed to a better understanding of wave-path effects and the response of complex structures. The approach using a staggered grid in finite-difference methods has the advantage of accuracy with less computational effort because it allows a larger grid size.