Home // International Journal On Advances in Systems and Measurements, volume 9, numbers 1 and 2, 2016 // View article

Modeling the Evolution of Terrestrial and Water-rich Planets and Moons

Authors:
Lena Noack
Attilio Rivoldini
Tim Van Hoolst

Keywords: fluid dynamics; convection; numerical modeling; thermal evolution; planetology

Abstract:
We completed the numerical code CHIC (short for Coupling Habitability, Interior, and Crust) for thermo-chemical simulations of the evolution of both terrestrial and water-rich planets and moons. The study focusses on the numerical aspects of the code implementations and their validation. The thermal evolution of the mantle is calculated either by solving the energy conservation equation supplemented by boundary-layer theory (1D parameterized thermal evolution model) or by solving the energy, mass, and momentum conservation equations (2D/3D convective thermal evolution). For the latter setting, the equations can be solved in both incompressible and compressible formulations and can include chemical buoyancy effects for an inhomogeneous mantle by applying a particles-in-cell method. The code provides a user updatable library of thermodynamic properties of core, mantle and water/ice materials derived from the associated equations of state. CHIC has been benchmarked with different convection codes, and has been compared to published interior-structure models and 1D parameterized models. CHIC is an advanced simulation code that can be applied to a diverse range of geodynamic problems and questions.

Pages: 66 to 76

Copyright: Copyright (c) to authors, 2016. Used with permission.

Publication date: June 30, 2016

Published in: journal

ISSN: 1942-261x