This is a calculation of convection in a box with two fluids of differing chemical density. The color scale in these images represent both temperature and fluid chemistry. The lower fluid (red-orange) is 4% denser than the upper (blue) fluid. The system is heated from below and cooled from above and the side walls have a zero heat flux boundary condition. The top, bottom and sides have free slip velocity boundary conditions. The Rayleigh Number for this problem is 300,000. This corresponds to a 6% density difference due to the thermal expansivity of the fluid. This calculation was used to study the effect of chemical stratification in the Earth's mantle on a cold downgoing slab of ocean crust. The calculations were performed on the Cray X-MP4/8 at San Diego Supercomputer Ceneter using ConMan, a two-dimensional finite element program for incompressible creep-flow:
Authors: Scott D. King
Seismological Laboratory
Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125
scott@seismo.gps.caltech.edu
Arthur Raefsky
Electrical Engineering Dept.
Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
arthur@pudleys.stanford.edu
Bradford H. Hager
Department of Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Science
