Pipe Poiseuille flow of viscously anisotropic, partially molten rock

Abstract

Laboratory experiments in which synthetic, partially molten rock is subjected to forced deformation provide a context for testing hypotheses about the dynamics and rheology of the mantle. Here our hypothesis is that the aggregate viscosity of partially molten mantle is anisotropic, and that this anisotropy arises from deviatoric stresses in the rock matrix. We formulate a model of pipe Poiseuille flow based on theory by Takei & Holtzman and Takei & Katz. Pipe Poiseuille is a configuration that is accessible to laboratory experimentation but for which there are no published results. We analyse the model system through linearized analysis and numerical simulations. This analysis predicts two modes of melt segregation: migration of melt from the centre of the pipe towards the wall and localization of melt into high-porosity bands that emerge near the wall, at a low angle to the shear plane. We compare our results to those of Takei & Katz for plane Poiseuille flow; we also describe a new approximation of radially varying anisotropy that improves the self-consistency of models over those of Takei & Katz. This study provides a set of baseline, quantitative predictions to compare with future laboratory experiments on forced pipe Poiseuille flow of partially molten mantle.