[aspect-devel] Is the correct Boussinesq approximation now the default in ASPECT?

[Wolfgang Bangerth]

Hi Gerry,

as a follow-up to the off-list email earlier today:


> My understanding is that Timo and Juliane have fixed the problem with the
> original - incorrect - Boussinesq approximation.
>
> How does one make certain that we are approximating solutions of the correct
> incompressible Mantle Convection Equations when running the current ASPECT
> master branch.

Your question sounds so trivial, but what the "correct incompressible Mantle 
Convection Equations" are is of course a matter than can be debated to great 
length.

The *default* in ASPECT has not changed (or should, at least, not have 
changed), i.e., it is the compressible model in which the full density is used 
wherever possible. What Timo, Juliane and Rene implemented is that you can 
*choose*, via the parameter Max already pointed out, whether you want to 
replace this default by any of the other formulations.

I believe that as part of the pull request, there is now a section in the 
manual that explains these formulations (in the big section up front where we 
talk about the equations) with links to examples in some of the cookbooks 
discussed in later chapters.

Best
  Wolfgang

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