PSI SEMINAR SERIES: 25 April 2007, 3:30PM
Validation and Benchmark of Meteor Impact Computer Simulations
Chris Johnson
Impact cratering modeling is a well established and important approach to learning more about the impact cratering process, presenting the need for a standardized and accurate means of evaluating different computer simulation models. Today many different computer codes are used to model, simulate, and predict the dynamics, interactions, and physics associated with meteor impact cratering, but comparing results between codes is often difficult. A group of fifteen planetary scientists from around the world have assembled to validate and benchmark these codes. As a part of the initial validation effort, we simulated a 1-km aluminum projectile, moving at 5 km/s and striking an aluminum target at 90 , using the impact hydrocode SOVA for two different resolutions. Our results were then compared with the data obtained from five other codes by plotting the shock pressure decay as a function of distance in the vertical direction away from the impact point.
