Researchers take advantage of 3D printing to better understand earthquake risks

A team of researchers from the University of Chicago, Seoul National University and Caltech conducted a series of seismic experiments using 3D-printed models of the Los Angeles Sedimentary Basin to better understand earthquake hazards.

The team presented their findings at the fall 2021 meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) yesterday, revealing that seismic waves with the highest and most destructive frequencies for buildings have already been attenuated – or reduced in strength – within the models’ basin, contradicting this. The long-accepted suggestion from numerical modeling that Earth’s vibration is amplified within basins.

The Los Angeles Basin was imaged and mapped by NASA’s ASTER Earth Observatory. Image via NASA JPL.

Earthquake modeling of basins

Sedimentary basins are geological structures that arose as depressions and became filled with low-density material over time, such as those deposited by landslides and rivers.

Earthquake-prone cities such as Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Santiago are all located in naturally occurring sedimentary basins, where traditional numerical modeling techniques imply the amplification of Earth’s vibration.

Numerical modeling methods are often used to understand the motion of the Earth in sedimentary basins, and are often limited in spatial resolution and restricted by input equations. Reproducing the small details of sedimentary basins within a digital model is challenging, due to trade-offs between the model’s spatial resolution and the computational time required to run it.

To address these drawbacks, University of Chicago seismologist Sunyoung Park and her colleagues turned to 3D-printed models to investigate more rigorously how seismic waves travel through sedimentary basins.

Earthquake simulation with 3D printed models

Park and her team began 3D printing models of the Los Angeles Basin after realizing that they could reproduce relatively small natural variations in density within the models, which correspond to about 10 meters in size in real life. According to the researchers, 3D-printed models allowed about 10 times better spatial resolution than a numerical model of the same landscape could achieve.

The team experimented with rubber and plastic materials to form the basis for their models and eventually settled on stainless steel due to its toughness and a subsequent wider range of material properties. They used an SLS 3D printing process to apply successive layers of stainless steel powder that had been heated and sintered together using a laser.

The team altered printing parameters, such as the speed of laser and powder sintering, in order to control the porosity of the model and to be able to print the models at a range of densities. The researchers made 20 x 4 x 1 cm models that captured a range of geological structures within the 50-kilometre-wide Los Angeles Basin, on a scale from 1 to 250,000.

Once the structures were printed, the team set out to run a series of seismic experiments to understand how seismic waves travel through the model’s basin. The researchers generated small earthquakes by bombarding the 3D-printed models with a megahertz laser light. The thermal energy of the laser pulses heated up the models and caused differential stresses that translated into motion.

The team recorded the Earth’s motion in the top of the models in ten nanometers, and found that the higher frequencies of Earth’s motion in the models are generally lower within the basins. In fact, seismic waves tend to reflect selectively at the edge of the basin.

The results contradict numerical modeling predictions that sedimentary basins are amplifiers of Earth’s motion, leaving more areas to investigate with 3D-printed models going forward. For example, during their experiments, the scientists also found that laser pulses caused airborne waves to creep up the upper surfaces of the models. Because airborne waves are strongly influenced by local terrain, follow-up work can include adding features such as hills and mountains to model surfaces and measuring how airborne waves propagate.

More information about the study can be found in a paper titled: “Earthquake Ripple by 3D-Printed Models in Los Angeles,” published by Eos. The study was co-authored by S. Park, C. Shin, Y. Kim, and R. Clayton.

Bird’s eye view of Amatrice before the earthquake. Photo by: appenninico.it

3D printed modeling applications

Apart from this recent development, 3D printing has been popularized in relation to earthquakes in the past. In 2015, a Napa resident produced a 3D printed visual representation of the maximum ground speed (PGV) information for a 6.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Napa, near San Francisco, on August 24. The following year, 3D printing was used to immortalize the Italian city of Amatrice in the form of a complex model after it was hit by an earthquake that killed 297 people.

Aside from earthquakes, 3D printed models have found applications in a variety of other fields. Most notably, the anatomical models of the medical and dental sector, where 3D printing enables realistic full color and accuracy, allows planning of complex surgeries, and helps patients better understand their treatment.

Elsewhere, 3D-printed models have been used to aid research and development in wound dressings, help develop treatments for infected burns, and help law enforcement officials combat wildlife trafficking.

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The featured image shows the Los Angeles Basin imaged and mapped by NASA’s ASTER Earth observation instrument. Image via NASA JPL.

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