A fully implicit model for simulating dynamo action in a Cartesian domain

Abstract We present a fully implicit numerical method to solve the incompressible MHD equations in a strongly rotating Cartesian domain. The equations are solved in a primitive variable formulation using a finite volume discretization. In order to use massively parallel computers, we applied a domain decomposition approach in space. The performance of this model is compared with an earlier model, which treated the convective terms of the equations in an explicit manner. Our results indicate that although the fully implicit method needs about three times the memory of the implicit–explicit method, it is superior in terms of computational efficiency. As an application of this model, we investigated the influence of the Prandtl number in the range of 0.01–1000 on the dynamics of the dynamo.

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