This paper considers the inverse problem of determining a timedependent slip fault which releases shear stress elastically. The input data are the accelerations measured on the free external surface. A new formulae for determining explicitly the geometry of the planar fault is proposed. Potential applications to real earthquakes are discussed.

International audienceIn this paper, the construction of analytic solution of stick-slip waves propagating along the interface between an elastic half-space and a moving rigid one is investigated. The contact between the solids is governed by unilateral constraints and Coulomb friction law and the deformable body is loaded by remote uniform stresses t*yy<0, t*xy>0. The method of solution is based on the continuation of Radok's complex potentials within the framework of steady state elastodynamical problems. The governing equation combined with the boundary conditions are reduced to a Riemann-Hilbert problem with discontinuous coefficient. This approach for the stick-slip study is novel and differs from those in the literature, namely the series method and the Weertmann's dislocation formulation. We present the closed form solution of the Riemann-Hilbert problem and show that the principal unknowns are of number two: the wave celerity and the ratio of the slip length by the stick one. The considered loading introduces an additional velocity V* related to the elongation e*xx due to the normal stress t*yy. We show that if V* vanishes there is no solution. When V* is taken into account, it is possible to construct weakly singular solutions satisfying all stick-slip conditions except over a narrow zone at transition points: The shear stress is singular over a small zone and the normal stress exhibits a positive singularity over a very small zone in the slip region which implies a separation near the singular transition

International audienceThe paper addresses the identification of a planar crack for Zener type linear viscoelastic solids. Under the condition of low frequency, the Zener model of viscoelasticity establishes the equivalence between viscoelasticity and elasticity and the equations are reduced to a Helmholtz type problem for time harmonic loadings. The solutions to the crack identification problems are then obtained from the corresponding solutions in elasticity, using only one frequency