In geosciences 3D geomechanical-numerical models are used to estimate the in-situ stress state. In such a model each geological unit is populated with the rock properties Young’s module, Poisson ratio, and density. Usually, each unit is assigned a single set of homogeneous properties. However, variable rock properties are observed and expected within the same geological unit. Even in small volumes large variabilities may. The Python script HIPSTER (Homogeneous to Inhomogeneous rock Properties for Stress TEnsor Research) provides an algorithm to include inhomogeneities in geomechanical-numerical models that use the solver Abaqus®. The user specifies the mean values for the rock properties Young's module, Poisson ratio and density, and their variability for each geological unit. The variability of the material properties is individually defined for each of the three rock properties in each geological layer. For each unit HIPSTER generates a normal or uniform distribution for each rock property. From these distri-butions for each single element HIPSTER draws individual rock properties and writes them to a separate material file. This file defines different material properties for each element. The file is included in the geomechanical-numerical analysis solver deck and the numerical model is solved as usual.
HIPSTER is fully documented in the associated data report (Ziegler, 2019, http://doi.org/10.2312/WSM.2019.003) and can also be accessed at Github (http://github.com/MorZieg/hipster)