A benchmark comparison for mantle convection codes

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1989.tb05511.x
• Publication Date: 2007-04-03T06:21:07Z
• Authors: B. Blankenbach; F. Busse; U. Christensen; L. Cserepes; D. Gunkel; U. Hansen; H. Harder; G. Jarvis; M. Koch; G. Marquart; D. Moore; P. Olson; H. Schmeling; T. Schnaubelt
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Summary We have carried out a comparison study for a set of benchmark problems which are relevant for convection in the Earth's mantle. The cases comprise steady isoviscous convection, variable viscosity convection and time-dependent convection with internal heating. We compare Nusselt numbers, velocity, temperature, heat-flow, topography and geoid data. Among the applied codes are finite-difference, finite-element and spectral methods. In a synthesis we give best estimates of the ‘true’ solutions and ranges of uncertainty. We recommend these data for the validation of convection codes in the future.