Multiphase thermohaline convection in the earth's crust: I. A new finite element - Finite volume solution technique combined with a new equation of state for NaCl-H2O

Abstract

We present a new finite element - finite volume (FEFV) method combined with a realistic equation of state for NaCl-H2O to model fluid convection driven by temperature and salinity gradients. This method can deal with the nonlinear variations in fluid properties, separation of a saline fluid into a high-density, high-salinity brine phase and low-density, low-salinity vapor phase well above the critical point of pure H2O, and geometrically complex geological structures. Similar to the well-known implicit pressure explicit saturation formulation, this approach decouples the governing equations. We formulate a fluid pressure equation that is solved using an implicit finite element method. We der..