Modelling of strains and stresses of the Earth-crust in the zones of ecologically dangerous objects

Abstract

Up to the last decade of the twentieth century, the main attention to the study of current movements of the Earth-crust was paid in seismically active territories. Such studies performed in platform regions with a little seismic activity were considered to be of scientific value only. and not very important in practice. However, after development of building of complex objects with an increased ecological dangerousness sensitive to deformations and seismic phenomena (nuclear power plants, large chemistry plants, etc.) and upon accumulation of instrumental observations of seismic phenomena, the criteria for estimating the seismic dangerousness in platform territories have changed. In this work, the modelling of the Earth-crust strains and stress change by applying the results of geodetic surveys is analysed. The tensor analysis is applied to make models. Parameters of models are estimated by the finite element method. According to the methods suggested, the studies were performed in the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (1NPP) region. The conclusion is drawn from the analysis of results that the model of strains and stresses made by the finite element method details the structure of the current tectonic activity in the study district and expands possibilities of the geotectonic interpretation of survey results. The studies performed show the merits of modelling of strains and stresses of the Earth-crust by the finite element method in comparison with other methods and possibilities of applying the program package Ansys for geodynamic studies.