A new generalized stiffness reduction method for 2D/2.5D frequency-domain seismic wave modeling in viscoelastic anisotropic media

In frequency-domain seismic wave modeling, absorbing artificial reflections is crucial to obtain accurate numerical solutions. We have determined that, in viscoelastic anisotropic media (VEAM), the most popular absorbing boundary techniques, such as the perfectly matched layer and the generalized stiffness reduction method (GSRM), fail. Then, we develop a new version of the GSRM and incorporate it into a 2D/2.5D spectral element method. We find with extensive nontrivial numerical experiments that the new GSRM exhibits excellent features of simple and efficient implementation, while handling free-surface and subsurface interface topography. Furthermore, we find that sampling the positive wavenumber range is an efficient strategy to compute the 3D wavefield in arbitrary 2D VEAM, and the new version takes full advantage of the symmetry/antisymmetry of the wavefield. The new GSRM removes artificial reflections by damping the real and imaginary viscoelastic moduli in different ways. The wavefields in two vertically transverse isotropic and one orthorhombic viscoelastic homogeneous models are compared with the corresponding analytical solutions to show the high accuracy performance of the new GSRM. Finally, a complex 2D geologic model with irregular free-surface and subinterface is considered to present the modeling technique and its adaptation capacity for complex 2D VEAM.