SULEC

SULEC is a finite element code that solves the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for slow creeping flows. Its current characteristics are:

• 2D/2.5D/3D
• Thermomechanical
• ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian)
• 4-node linear velocity, constant pressure elements
• 9-node quadratic velocity, linear pressure elements
• Tracers track materials
• Uzawa pressure iterations
• Powerlaw creep viscosity
• Elasticity
• Drucker-Prager type plasticity
• Simple implementations of sedimentation and erosion

Tests passed:

• Reproduce lithostatic pressure for gravitational body force model without external forces
• Viscous pure shear (test of free surface)
• Viscous Couette flow (velocity and pressure)
• Poiseuille flow (velocity and pressure)
• Stokes flow (sinking cylinder)
• Cavity flow
• Viscous relaxation of a sinusoidal perturbation
• Pressure field around a rigid inclusion (Schmid and Podladchikov, GJI, 2003)
• Viscoelastic pure shear
• Viscoelastic simple shear
• Recovery of original shape of deformed elastic block
• Mohr-Coulomb shear zones in compression (see also Lemiale et al, PEPI, 2008; Kaus, Tectonophysics, 2010)
• Halfspace cooling
• Steady-state temperature gradient with basal temperature or basal heatflux
• Schmeling et al subduction benchmark (PEPI 171, 2008)

Papers using SULEC:

• Ellis, S.M., Little, T.A., Wallace, L.M., Hacker, B.R., Buiter, S.J.H., 2011, Feedback between rifting and diapirism can exhume ultrahigh-pressure rocks, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 311, 427-438, doi: doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.09.031
• Quinquis, M.E.T., Buiter, S.J.H., S. Ellis, 2011, The role of boundary conditions in numerical models of subduction zone dynamics, Tectonophysics 497, 57-70, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2010.11.001

Developers: Susan Ellis (GNS Sciences, NZ) and Susanne Buiter (NGU)

(c) Susanne Buiter, 19 December 2011