Several aspects of the intended problem push it out of the realm of serial processing. The expansion of the domain to track down flow changes, and the addition of time dependence and a solid base, require a moderate to large increase in computational requirements. The largest computational requirement is in the resolution of the mesh. However, the results will tell us much more about lava flow processes than our isothermal simulations, since it is these large gradients in temperature and rheology that drive most of the flow processes in real flows. This composite figure shows three runs illustrating the effect of cooling on non-isothermal channel flow simulation of surface lava flow.
Flow is from left to right.
Simulations were performed on the CRAY T3E, time-evolving to a steady state. The top figure shows an isometric view of the temperature contours in the right half of the lava channel. The spectral element grid has 1,200 3-D elements each with a 7th order polynomial representation. The slope of the layer is 3.5 degrees. From these calculations we are able to determine the time and distance from the inflow that is a function of the cooling.