A new implementation of convolutional PML for second-order elastic wave equation

The perfectly matched layer (PML) boundary condition has been widely used as a very effective absorbing boundary condition for seismic wavefield simulations. Convolutional PML (CPML) achieved by using a complex frequency-shifted stretch function was the latest development to further improve PML’s absorption performance for near-grazing angle incident waves as well as for low-frequency incident waves. However, the mathematical theory of the PML method is derived from the first-order equation, all PML implementations of second-order equations are to introduce auxiliary equations or variables to rewrite original PML equations, which will complicate the implementation. In this article, we propose a simple and efficient CPML implementation method for the second-order elastic wave equation, which directly simulates the second-order CPML equation. The main advantage of this method is that there is no need to introduce auxiliary variables or auxiliary equations to convert the second-order PML equation from the complex coordinate space to the real axis. Compared with the conventional CPML method for the second-order elastic wave equation, it introduces only eight convolution variables. We demonstrate the validity and absorption performance through extensive numerical experiments.