Computational Method

• 3 different temperature perturbations: 5, 10, & 20%.

• Evolution was computed with PPM:

  • modified states to better treat the gravitational source terms (LeVeque JCP 1998; Zingale et al. ApJS 2002).
  • axisymmetry geometry was used.

• Upper boundary has several meters of low density material to act as a buffer.

  • any material that leaves through the top of the grid affects the pressure at the base of the column, P = gy
  • Material is able to expand without affecting the base pressure in the envelope.