2D and 3D Finite Element Restorations of Geological Structures with Sliding Contact Along Faults

International audienceA fully implicit finite element method is developed for the restoration of sedimentary basins. Internal deformationis distributed with a linear hyper-elasticity constitutive law. Deformation is also accommodated by large slidingalong faults. This mechanism is represented by a frictionless bilateral contact algorithm between deformablebodies. Application are shown with 2D forward or backward models of thrust related folding with multipleintersecting discontinuities. An example demonstrates how this restoration algorithm enables to detectmisinterpretation in the structural model. One advantage of the method is to allow 3D modeling, as shown bythe restoration of a Miocene anticline in the Iranian Zagros thrust belt. The main interest of this method will be tofacilitate the coupling between restoration and forward modeling