Berkeley Fluids Seminar
University of California, Berkeley
Bring your lunch and enjoy learning about fluids!
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
240, Bechtel Hall, 12:00-13:00
Nicholas Knezek (Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley)
Magnetohydrodynamic Waves in a Thin Spherical Layer – Numerical Techniques and Applications to Earth’s Core.
Fluctuations in the geomagnetic field originate due to motions in the conductive fluid in Earth’s outer core and give us valuable insights into Earth’s inner workings. Many authors have proposed a buoyantly stratified layer just under the core-mantle boundary sometimes called the “Stratified Ocean of the Core” in analogy with Earth’s liquid water oceans. If this layer exists, it could support large-scale long period waves detectable in through geomagnetic variation. The highly coupled nature of the governing equations for conductive fluids make analytical solutions difficult and highly approximate, but the problem is amenable to numerical solutions. In this talk, a numerical hybrid finite-volume and spectral eigenvalue approach for studying magnetohydrodynamic waves in a thin spherical layer is presented and preliminary results are discussed.
Acknowledgments
Prof. Graham Fleming (Vice Chancellor for Research, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Eliot Quataert on behalf of The Theoretical Astrophysics Center and the Astronomy Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Philip S. Marcus on behalf of the Mechanical Engineering Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Michael Manga (Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Evan Variano (Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley)