[aspect-devel] Van Keken et al. 2008 subduction benchmark

[Wolfgang Bangerth]

On 10/27/2016 10:13 AM, Max Rudolph wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone has been successful in setting up the Van Keken et
> al. 2008 subduction benchmark using ASPECT? I have been using this as a
> starting point to set up a more complicated corner flow model and have not yet
> been successful.
>
> This benchmark solution requires a rigid overriding plate and kinematic
> subducting plate. There is a discontinuity along the subduction interface. I
> tried imposing kinematic boundary conditions on the left and bottom of the box
> and using Jonathan Perry-Houts' prescribed velocity plugin
> (cookbooks/prescribed_velocity), but the Stokes solver fails to converge.
> Looking at the pressure field, it's not surprising to see very large
> oscillations in this region where the velocity field is discontinuous. It
> occurred to me that using the locally conservative discretization might help.
> However, when the locally conservative discretization is enabled, the internal
> prescribed velocities are no longer enforced anywhere. Is it obvious why this
> might be the case?

Max -- I haven't tried implementing the benchmark in ASPECT, but recall trying 
to do so in an early version of step-32 when I visited Scott in Blacksburg for 
the very first time many many years ago. I remember it to be very difficult 
because the benchmark definition really doesn't fit the finite element method.

One of the issues with the use of the prescribed velocity is that the 
prescribed velocity needs to be divergence free on each cell. Is it, in your 
case? Even on cells where you only prescribe values at some nodes?

Best
  W.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wolfgang Bangerth          email:                 bangerth at colostate.edu
                            www: http://www.math.colostate.edu/~bangerth/