[aspect-devel] Traction b.c.

[Glerum, A.C. (Anne)]

Hi Lev, 

The representative point in the initial_lithospheric_pressure traction boundary plugin is a user-defined point along which a vertical pressure profile is calculated. Hence it only takes into account the horizontal coordinates of the representative point and then integrates the pressure downward from the surface. The pressure profile is only calculated once at the beginning of the model run based on the initial conditions for temperature and composition (so it includes variations in density due to temperature and composition). The same vertical profile is prescribed on the whole boundary/boundaries with traction boundary conditions. 

Cheers,
Anne




> On 26 Jun 2017, at 09:31, Wolfgang Bangerth <bangerth at tamu.edu> wrote:
> 
> On 06/25/2017 09:43 PM, Lev Karatun wrote:
>> I was running models with traction b.c. and I'm a bit confused with the "Representative point" parameter. I know it has to do with the point above where density is integrated, but is it only integrated before the 1st timestep or every timestep? And is the resulting pressure then applied to the entire face? And how is the pressure at a certain depth calculated - is it just linearly interpolated or does it take the density variance into account?
> 
> There are a number of places in the code where we use representative points. Can you point out where specifically the representative point is used that you are asking about?
> 
> Best
> W.
> 
> -- 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Wolfgang Bangerth          email:                 bangerth at colostate.edu
>                           www: http://www.math.colostate.edu/~bangerth/
> 
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