Benchmark comparisons are an essential tool to verify the accuracy and validity of computational approaches to mantle convection. Six 2-D Cartesian compressible convection codes are compared for steady-state constant and temperature-dependent viscosity cases as well as time-dependent constant viscosity cases.
In general we find good agreement between all codes when comparing average flow characteristics such as Nusselt number and rms velocity. At Rayleigh numbers near 106 and dissipation numbers between 0 and 2, the results differ by approximately 1 per cent.