Image of the results of a Sedsim simulation, showing how the different grain types vary.

Sedsim predicts where your sediment types are and how they were deposited.

Accessing Sedsim: sedimentary process modelling software

Sedsim is a software package which determines how sediments change in both time and space by recreating the physical processes that deposit, erode and rework sediments.

  • 24 March 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011
  1. Sedsim - modelling software
  2. How Sedsim works
  3. Fluid flow
  4. Sediment transport
  5. Loading/isostasy, Tectonic subsidence
  6. Compaction
  7. Slope failure and turbidity/gravity flows
  8. Wave and storm effects
  9. Carbonates and organics
  10. Geostrophic currents, Circulation
  11. Aeolian
  12. Sedsim history

Sedsim - modelling software

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Sedsim processes

Sedsim is a stratigraphic forward modelling code that enables users to recreate the way sedimentary systems were deposited, or predict how they will evolve in the future.

Sedsim operates by numerically modelling the physical processes which deposit sediment.

Processes currently modelled include:

  • aeolian
  • fluvial (rivers)
  • turbidites
  • Sedsim helps you determine how sediments are distributed and the physical processes that put them there.
    wave effects
  • storms
  • ocean currents
  • geostrophic currents
  • carbonate growth
  • isostasy
  • compaction
  • tectonics
  • sea level change.

Sedsim application

Sedsim is an extremely versatile program, it has modelled fluid flows at grid scales ranging from 2.5 cm through to 5 km grids, and at time scales ranging from four hours through to 60 million years.

It has been used widely in the oil industry to predict how sediments are distributed between wells, and investigate the physical validity of play concepts (investigating how the petroleum system formed).

It has also been used to model the effects of the modern environment, and the role that climate change will have on Australia’s exclusive economic zone.

Accessing Sedsim

Sedsim is available commercially, in a number of ways:

  • under licence on your system
  • under licence on our supercomputers
  • via contract with the stratigraphic modelling team.

Sedsim is also available for use by academic groups.

Follow link to the latest Sedsim demonstration software and information [external link]. 

If you have trouble accessing the Sedsim software please email: Tristan.Salles-Taing@csiro.au

Please contact Dr Cedric Griffiths for pricing, licensing options and collaboration opportunities.

Dr Cedric Griffiths (BSc PhD)
Research Group Leader
Earth Science and Resource Engineering
Phone: 61 8 6436 8784 
Fax: 61 8 6436 8555 

References

  • Tetzlaff DM, Harbaugh JW. 1989. Simulating Clastic Sedimentation; Computer Methods in the Geosciences. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, NY, USA.
  • Li F, Dyt C, Griffiths C. 2004. 3D modelling of the isotatic flexural deformation. Computers and Geosciences. 30: 1105-1115.