A numerical application of the Eshelby theory for geobarometry of non-ideal host-inclusion systems

In their latest paper Simone Morganti and Mattia Mazzucchelli show us how to tackle the elastic relaxation problem for non isotropic host-inclusion systems. The authors propose a finite-element-based approach to determine the Eshelby and the relaxations tensors for any morphology of the inhomogeneity and for any crystallographic symmetry of the host. The proposed procedure can be directly applied in the framework of elastic geobarometry to estimate, on the basis of the Eshelby theory, the entrapment conditions (pressure and temperature) from the residual strain field measured in the inhomogeneity. This aspect represents a step forward to currently available models for geobarometry allowing the investigation of complex morphologies of the inhomogeneity in systems with general material anisotropy. We validate the proposed approach versus Eshelby analytical solutions available for spherical and ellipsoidal inclusions and we show the application to a real geological case of high pressure metamorphic rocks.