Hi Brad,
I am looking to know how PyLith handles tensile stresses at a fault with rate and state friction. In equation 6.69 of the manual it says that shear tractions is T_f = 0 when the normal traction is T_n > 0 (Tensile stress).
However, looking at the rate and state implementation I see that when T_n > 0 we have T_f = T_c, where T_c is cohesion. I found this information on line 337 of the file RateStateAgeing.cc under libsrc/friction.
Could you please comment on what is the precise behavior of rate and state friction when the fault is under tensile stresses ?
Thank you,
Josimar