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Advances in the discontinuous Galerkin method: Hybrid schemes and applications to the reactive infiltration instability in an upwelling compacting mantle

Posted on:2010-09-17Degree:Ph.DType:Thesis
University:Brown UniversityCandidate:Schiemenz, Alan RFull Text:PDF
GTID:2440390002979819Subject:Geophysics
Abstract/Summary:
High-order methods are emerging in the scientific computing community as superior alternatives to the classical finite difference, finite volume, and continuous finite element methods. The discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method in particular combines many of the positive features of all of these methods. This thesis presents two projects involving the DG method.;First, a Hybrid scheme is presented, which implements DG areas where the solution is considered smooth, while dropping the order of the scheme elsewhere and implementing a finite volume scheme with high-order, non-oscillatory solution reconstructions suitable for unstructured mesh. Two such reconstructions from the ENO class are considered in the Hybrid. Successful numerical results are presented for nonlinear systems of conservation laws in one dimension.;Second, the high-order discontinuous Galerkin and Fourier spectral methods are applied to an application modeling three-phase fluid flow through a porous medium, undergoing solid-fluid reaction due to the reactive infiltration instability (RII). This model incorporates a solid upwelling term and an equation to track the abundance of the reacting mineral orthopyroxene (opx). After validating the numerical discretization, results are given that provide new insight into the formation of melt channels in the Earth's mantle. Mantle heterogeneities are observed to be one catalyst for the development of melt channels, and the dissolution of opx produces interesting bifurcations in the melt channels. An alternative formulation is considered where the mass transfer rate relative to velocity is taken to be infinitely large. In this setting, the stiffest terms are removed, greatly reducing the cost of time integration.
Keywords/Search Tags:Discontinuous galerkin, Method, Finite, Hybrid, Scheme
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