Hello everyone,
I’m on an internship and we are using aspect to compute the convection and the dynamic topography of Venus on a 2D box.
I’m currently discovering ASPECT and I have a question,
-What are the units of the heat and mass flux (depth average, 2D box) ? Because some says that it’s in watt and other in W/m, and I can’t find anything about the mass flux.
@lino You should think of ASPECT using SI units (kilogram meter second) internally. In that case, if you do 3d computations, a heat flux would have units J/m^2/s – the amount of the quantity (Joules) per cross section area (meters squared) per time unit (seconds). So that’s W/m^2. On the other hand, in 2d calculations, the cross section is just a line and so would have units m, making the units of a heat flux W/m.
Similarly, in 3d, a mass flux would have units kg/m^2/s (amount = kg, per cross section area = m^2, per time unit = s). If you had a 2d simulation, you’d have units kg/m/s for mass flux.
Best
WB
Ok thank you,
Have a nice day !