ASPECT
Changes after the latest release (v2.5.0)

This is the list of changes made after the release of ASPECT version 2.5.0. All entries are signed with the names of the author.

  1. Removed: The GeometryModel::Chunk and GeometryModel::TwoMergedChunks classes had member functions depth_wrt_topo(), but these were not used anywhere and did not work with the mesh deformation framework. They have consequently been removed.
    (Wolfgang Bangerth, 2023/12/07)

  2. Changed: The interface Postprocess::VisualizationPostprocessors::CellDataVectorCreator::execute() used to return an object of type std::pair<std::string, Vector<float>*> where the second part is just a raw pointer. This has been changed (incompatibly) to std::pair<std::string, std::unique_ptr<Vector<float>>> to avoid the use of raw pointers and ensure that memory de-allocation happens automatically.
    (Wolfgang Bangerth, 2023/11/28)

  3. Fixed: The stress and shear stress visualization postprocessors now output the correct stresses when elasticity is enabled.
    (Bob Myhill, Rebecca Fildes, 2023/11/10)

  4. Fixed: The 'principal stress' postprocessor used the wrong sign for stresses in models with elastic deformation, leading to principal stress directions that were rotated by 90 degrees. This is fixed now.
    (Rene Gassmoeller, Rebecca Fildes, 2023/11/09)

  5. Changed: ASPECT now considers boundaries with no normal flow as boundaries with inflow for the purposes of the parameter 'Allow fixed temperature on outflow boundaries' and the corresponding parameter for composition. This was the default behavior up to ASPECT 2.4.0. This behavior was changed in ASPECT 2.5.0, in which boundaries with no normal flow are treated like outflow boundaries. The new behavior caused unintended side effects, therefore it is reverted back to the original behavior. The reason for the initial change was a bugfix for boundary conditions in the first timestep that is now implemented differently.
    (Rene Gassmoeller, 2023/11/06)

  6. Fixed: The RK4 particle interpolation scheme computed wrong particle locations for particles that crossed periodic boundaries in a box geometry. This is fixed now.
    (Rene Gassmoeller, 2023/11/03)

  7. New: There is now a new cookbook that demonstrates how to use the grain size material model and how to choose the particle parameters in a model with a complex nonlinear rheology.
    (Juliane Dannberg, 2023/10/07)

  8. New: The amount of shear heating in a computation can now be limited by setting a maximum stress to be used, based on a Drucker-Prager yield stress with a user- specified cohesion and friction angle. This is useful in models with unrealistically high stresses.
    (Juliane Dannberg, 2023/10/01)

  9. Added: There is now a prescribed viscosity material model plugin, which can overwrite the viscosity of a specified location with a viscosity prescribed by a function.
    (Menno Fraters, 2023/09/27)

  10. Changed: ASPECT has been renamed from "Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth's ConvecTion" to "Advanced Solver for Planetary Evolution, Convection, and Tectonics" to reflect that the scope of ASPECT has grown beyond mantle convection.
    (Timo Heister, 2023/09/17)

  11. New: There is now an entropy table lookup model in the initial composition model. This model takes an initial temperature field and converts it to an initial entropy field using a lookup table.
    (Haoyuan Li, 2023/08/11)

  12. Changed: The benchmarks 'blankenbach' and 'king2dcompressible' have been reworked and extended. Changes include: (1) higher resolution, (2) more reproducible convergence results, (3) additional figures, (4) a comparison between gradient based and CBF heat flux calculation, (5) reproducible Richardson extrapolation of ASPECT reference results.
    (Rene Gassmoeller, 2023/08/29)

  13. New: There is now a new viscosity profile data file that is more consistent with how the profile is computed in the original Steinberger and Calderwood (2006) paper.
    (Juliane Dannberg, Bernhard Steinberger, 2023/08/22)

  14. New: The steinberger material model now allows the viscosities of different materials to differ from the reference viscosity by a constant factor via the parameter Composition viscosity prefactors.
    (Poulami Roy and Bob Myhill, 2023/08/14)

  15. Improved: The 'spherical constant' boundary composition and boundary temperature plugins have been updated. In particular the boundary composition plugin can now prescribe different values for different compositional fields.
    (Rene Gassmoeller, 2023/08/02)

  16. Improved: The iteration scheme in the diffusion dislocation material model now uses the derivative of the logarithm of the strain rate to the logarithm of the stress. This improves efficiency and stablility of the iterative scheme. The parameter "Strain rate residual tolerance" now corresponds to the residual for the logarithm of the strain rate (which close to the solution corresponds to the relative residual).
    (Haoyuan Li and Bob Myhill, 2023/07/18)

  17. New: There is now a strain rate tensor postprocessor that is only outputted on the surface of the model domain.
    (Anne Glerum, 2023/07/17)

  18. Added: A sea level postprocessor that computes the sea level for glacial isostatic adjustment modeling. It computes the sea level based on the free surface topography, ocean basin, ice melt from boundary traction, and perturbed gravitational potential of the Earth model from the geoid postprocessor.
    (Maaike Weerdesteijn, 2023/07/14)

  19. Fixed: The strain rheology now uses the correct 'old strain' when computing the reaction term updates.
    (John Naliboff 2023/07/14)

  20. New: There is now a new cookbook which models the (Poiseuille) flow of the lower crust around a rigid obstacle.
    (Cedric Thieulot, 2023/07/13)

  21. Improved: The initial lithostatic pressure plugin for boundary tractions now includes the initial topography of the reference point into its pressure profile instead of the maximum topography within the domain.
    (Anne Glerum, 2023/07/13)

  22. Changed: Boundary traction models are now organized in a manager class that allows to assign multiple boundary traction plugins to each boundary. Existing user plugins that use the function this->get_boundary_traction() will need to be modified to use this->get_boundary_traction_manager().
    (Chameera Silva, Rene Gassmoeller, 2023/07/13)

  23. New: Added a cookbook on how to set up global instantaneous models based on recent geophysical constraints with a heterogeneous density and viscosity distribution and weak plate boundaries prescribed using different plate boundary configurations.
    (Arushi Saxena, Juliane Dannberg, and Rene Gassmoeller 2023/07/13)

  24. New: There is now a new cookbook which is a very simple subduction initiation model as published by Matsumoto and Tomoda (1983).
    (Cedric Thieulot, 2023/07/12)

  25. Changed: The entropy plugin now includes a plasticity rheology, which can be set by cohesion and frictional angle. It can also use a viscosity prefactor profile, set the lateral viscosity variation limit, and choose p-T dependent conductivity


    (Ranpeng Li & Juliane Dannberg, 2023/07/13)

  26. Changed: Material models are now always provided with the current strain rate. Checks if the strain rate is provided are not longer necessary. MaterialModelInputs can no longer be initialized without a strain rate.
    (Rene Gassmoeller, 2023/07/12)

  27. New: A cookbook which replicates the model setup of the van Keken et al., 2008 2D corner flow subduction benchmark.
    (Daniel Douglas, Cedric Thieulot, Wolfgang Bangerth, Max Rudolph, 2023/07/12)

  28. New: There is now a new cookbook which models the deformation of elliptical and rectangular inclusions in simple shear and pure shear.
    (Cedric Thieulot, 2023/07/11)

  29. Fixed: When using the 'artificial viscosity' visualization postprocessor in parallel, we used to put NaNs into the output vector (for ghost and artificial cells) that then triggered floating point exceptions. This is now fixed.
    (Wolfgang Bangerth, 2023/07/10)

  30. New: The base code for the computation and output of Crystal Preferred Orientation (CPO) has been added to ASPECT.
    (Menno Fraters, 2023/07/09)

  31. Changed: The input parameter 'Include viscoelasticity' has been removed from the visco_plastic material model. When 'Enable elasticity' in the Formulation subsection is switched on, elasticity will automatically be included in the visco_plastic material model.
    (Anne Glerum, 2023/07/09)

  32. New: ASPECT now allows it to select a different list of assemblers for each advection field.
    (Juliane Dannberg, 2023/07/09)

  33. Improved: The iteration scheme in the Peierls creep rheology now uses the derivative of the logarithm of the strain rate to the logarithm of the stress.
    (Haoyuan Li and Bob Myhill, 2023/07/08)

  34. New: The cutoff stress for the Peierls stress could now be applied strictly as the lower limit of the stress in the Peierls rheology
    (Haoyuan Li, Bob Myhill, 2023/07/08)

  35. Fixed: The computation of the upper box origin in the 'box with lithosphere boundary indicators' geometry model did not take into account a nonzero origin. This is fixed now.
    (Juliane Dannberg, 2023/07/08)

  36. Changed: Default field types are now defined by ASPECT based on Field Names if the types are not defined by the user. The logic is as follows: if the name contains the substring stress, it has type stress. If the name is equal to s11, s12, s22, s13, s23, s33, it has type strain. If the name is equal to grain_size, porosity, density_field, or entropy it has the types grain size, porosity, density or entropy respectively. Otherwise it has the type chemical composition.
    (Bob Myhill, 2023/07/08)

  37. New: There is now a new additional benchmark called solubility that demonstrates the mass of water is conserved as water is released, migrates and is being reabsorbed.
    (Juliane Dannberg, 2023/07/08)

  38. Improved: ASPECT is now by default compiled in DebugRelease mode which compiles both a debug and a release (optimized) version of the executable. Individual build types can still be selected using 'make debug' or 'make release' or by setting the cmake variable CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE to Debug or Release.
    (Rene Gassmoeller, Timo Heister, 2023/07/07)

  39. New: The maximum relative increase in the time step length is now bounded by a factor of 1.91, where before it was unbounded. This value is obtained from theoretical considerations about parabolic problems.
    (Laila Busaleh, 2022/09/15)

  40. New: Mesh deformation plugin that uses the landscape evolution code FastScape to deform the surface through erosion and sediment deposition.

    Citations: Neuharth, D., Brune, S., Wrona, T., Glerum, A., Braun, J., & Yuan, X. (2022). Evolution of rift systems and their fault networks in response to surface processes. Tectonics, 41(3), e2021TC007166.

    Neuharth, D., Brune, S., Glerum, A., Morley, C. K., Yuan, X., & Braun, J. (2022). Flexural strike-slip basins. Geology, 50(3), 361-365.


    (Derek Neuharth, Anne Glerum, Sascha Brune, Esther Heckenbach 2023/03/01)

  41. New: There is now a new initial temperature plugin that adds a fixed number of Gaussian perturbations placed at random locations to the initial temperature.
    (Juliane Dannberg, 2023/02/10)

  42. New: The 'grain size' material model now supports the grain size evolution equations of Mulyukova & Bercovici 2018 in addition to the existing formulations. For this purpose the old input parameter 'Use paleowattmeter' has been deprecated and replaced with 'Grain size evolution formulation'. The default behavior of the material model has not changed. Benchmarks and tests for the new feature have been added.
    (Arushi Saxena, Ranpeng Li, Juliane Dannberg, Rene Gassmoeller, 2023/08/23)