Finite-difference modeling of SH-wave conversions in shallow shear-wave refraction surveying

The shallow shear-wave refraction method works successfully in an area with a series of horizontal layers. Complex near-surface geology, however, may not fit into the assumption of a series of horizontal layers. It is theoretically inevitable that a plane SH-wave undergoes wave-type conversions along an interface in an area of non-horizontal layers. One real example has shown that the shallow SH-wave refraction method provides velocities of a converted wave rather than SH-wave. Moreover, it is impossible to identify the converted wave by refraction data itself. In this paper, we implement numerical simulation for conversion of SH- to P-wave in 3D heterogeneous medium with the finite-difference method. An SH-wave source excitation method that we give in the numerical simulation is testified, which can only generate SH-wave without P-wave. The numerical modeling results demonstrate that the conversion of the SH-wave to other wave-types will occur in an area of non-horizontal layers. All the converted P-wave arrivals are shown reversed polarity like S-wave arrivals in the modeling of reverse of the source and we have clarified the peculiar properties of converted P-waves from the S-wave. Our numerical simulation results confirm that velocities calculated from an SH-wave refraction survey are velocities of converted waves. Therefore, special attention should be paid to this pitfall in the real world.