An effective parameterization of texture-induced viscous anisotropy in orthotropic materials with application for modeling geodynamical flows

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new mathematical and numerical approach to model texture-induced viscous anisotropy in orthorhombic materials, specifically olivine in the Earth's mantle, enhancing geodynamic simulations with minimal computational cost.

Contribution

It presents a novel parameterization based on Hill's yield criterion, calibrated with SO-VPSC model data, integrated into 3D finite-element codes for improved mantle flow modeling.

Findings

Validated implementation against analytical and SO-VPSC results.

Revealed couplings between mantle texture and crustal deformation.

Computational cost increased by only 2-3 times compared to isotropic models.

Abstract

In this article, we describe the mathematical formulation and the numerical implementation of an effective parametrization of the viscous anisotropy of orthorhombic materials produced by crystallographic preferred orientations (CPO or texture), which can be integrated into 3D geodynamic and materials science codes. Here, the approach is applied to characterize the texture-induced viscous anisotropy of olivine polycrystals, the main constituent of the Earth's upper mantle. The parameterization is based on the Hill (1948) orthotropic yield criterion. The coefficients of the Hill yield surface are calibrated based on numerical tests performed using the second order Viscoplastic Self-consistent (SO-VPSC) model. The parametrization was implemented in a 3D thermo-mechanical finite-element code developed to model large-scale geodynamical flows, in the form of a Maxwell rheology combining isotropic elastic and anisotropic non-linear viscous behaviors. The implementation was validated by comparison with results of the analytical solution and of the SO-VPSC model for simple shear and axial compression of a homogeneous anisotropic material. An application designed to examine the effect of texture-induced viscous anisotropy on the reactivation of mantle shear zones in continental plates highlights unexpected couplings between localized deformation controlled by variations in the orientation and intensity of the olivine texture in the mantle and the mechanical behavior of the elasto-viscoplastic overlying crust. Importantly, the computational time only increases by a factor 2-3 with respect to the classic isotropic Maxwell viscoelastic rheology.