Preconditioners for models of coupled magma/mantle dynamics

Speaker: Sander Rhebergen (Waterloo)

Models of coupled magma/mantle dynamics describe the creeping flow of high-viscosity mantle matrix and the porous flow of magma, a process which is described by a coupling of the Stokes equations for the
mantle with Darcy’s law for the magma. These models are used for example to simulate migration of melt in subduction zones.
We are interested in solving these models of coupled magma/mantle dynamics in three dimensions. In this talk, I will discuss numerical methods to efficiently solve the linear system arising from the discretization of these two-phase flow models. In particular, I will discuss the development of preconditioners and show some comparisons between three-dimensional numerical simulations and laboratory experiments.