Upwelling and downwelling behavior in the Elder-Voss-Souza benchmark

Abstract

The Elder-Voss-Souza (EVS) problem is a standard benchmark for the numerical simulation of variable-density flow and solute transport in a porous medium. However, a review of prior work shows that there is a wide variation in published results on plume structure that cannot entirely be explained by different choices of governing and constitutive equation or by discretization error and numerical error. This work presents results using a new numerical model and algorithms for a series of well-calibrated comparison tests that are designed to elucidate the issue. In addition to the factors mentioned above, we consider the effects of initial and boundary conditions, domain geometry, and problem parameters such as the length of the source boundary segment and the buoyancy parameter in the associated Rayleigh number. It is found that these are key parameters determining the upwelling/downwelling plume behavior. More specifically, the values chosen for the EVS problem lie close to critical values that separate odd and even plume numbers. Consequently, perturbations to the model, mesh, and simulation variables may lead to different plume behavior. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.