Physics-Informed Transfer Learning Strategy to Accelerate Unsteady Fluid Flow Simulations

Abstract

Since the derivation of the Navier–Stokes equations, it has become possible to numerically solve real-world viscous flow problems (computational fluid dynamics (CFD)). However, despite the rapid advancements in the performance of central processing units (CPUs), the computational cost of simulating transient flows with extremely small time/grid-scale physics is still unrealistic. In recent years, machine learning (ML) technology has received significant attention across industries, and this big wave has propagated various interests in the fluid dynamics community. Recent ML–CFD studies have revealed that completely suppressing the increase in error with the increase in interval between the training and prediction times in data-driven methods is unrealistic. The development of a practical CFD acceleration methodology that applies ML is a remaining issue. Therefore, the objectives of this study were developing a realistic ML strategy based on a physics-informed transfer learning and validating the accuracy and acceleration performance of this strategy using an unsteady CFD dataset. This strategy can determine the timing of transfer learning while monitoring the residuals of the governing equations in a cross-coupling computation framework. Consequently, our hypothesis that continuous fluid flow time-series prediction is feasible was validated, as the intermediate CFD simulations periodically not only reduce the increased residuals but also update the network parameters. Notably, the cross-coupling strategy with a grid-based network model does not compromise the simulation accuracy for computational acceleration. The simulation was accelerated by 1.8 times in the laminar counterflow CFD dataset condition including the parameter-updating time. Open-source CFD software OpenFOAM and open-source ML software TensorFlow were used in this feasibility study.

Keywords: machine learning, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Transfer learning, physics-informed loss function, simulation acceleration