Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Model for Geophysical Flows

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is developing a new application of a method for numerical modeling of viscous fluids based on discrete particles. The application is based on a method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics in which the continuum equations representing the fluid dynamics are solved locally in terms of virtual particles. A large number of these particles are used to represent a fluid within some domain of interest. As a numerical method, smoothed particle hydrodynamics provides several important advantages including the ability to track material properties with the flow, computational efficiency on multiprocessor computers and easy integration with particle models for brittle deformation. The model is being applied to several problems of interest in deformation of the Earth's crust where viscous flow of the deep, hot crust interacts with a shallow, colder, more brittle upper crust.