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MFIXing Volcanic Plumes: from lab puffs to Fuego\'s fury

Eric C.P. Breard 1,2, Jordan Musser3, Johan T. Gilchrist2 and Josef Dufek2

  • Affiliations: 1: School of Geoscience, University of Edinburgh, UK 2: Department of Earth Science, University of Oregon, USA 3: NETL, Department of Energy, Morgantown, USA

  • Presentation type: Poster

  • Presentation time: Thursday 16:30 - 18:30, Room Poster Hall

  • Poster Board Number: 93

  • Programme No: 3.12.19

  • Theme 3 > Session 12

Abstract

Multiphase flow solvers have proven useful in the past decades to study the dynamics of volcanic jets and plumes. In this work, we present simulations conducted using the open-source code MFIX ---Multiphase Flow with Interphase eXchanges---that we modified to incorporate several closure models and expand the initial and boundary conditions specification framework to include natural-scale conditions. We first show results of reproducing small scale single and multiphase experiments investigating the role of periodically changing source conditions on plume rise and spreading height. We also explore the validity of the added multiphase descriptions (i.e. Large Eddy Simulation, thermal energy modifications) in natural scale by reproducing the weak and strong plume cases following the international benchmarking exercise of 2016 and expand by allowing the use of 2D wind fields. We demonstrate the role of wind shear on influencing entrainment and subsequent plume rise using the 2018 Fuego eruption as a test case. Finally, we illustrate the potential to include other microphysics such as phase changes to explore a broader range of volcanic eruptions and atmospheric conditions.