No Arabic abstract
We investigate the capability of neural network-based model order reduction, i.e., autoencoder (AE), for fluid flows. As an example model, an AE which comprises of a convolutional neural network and multi-layer perceptrons is considered in this study. The AE model is assessed with four canonical fluid flows, namely: (1) two-dimensional cylinder wake, (2) its transient process, (3) NOAA sea surface temperature, and (4) $y-z$ sectional field of turbulent channel flow, in terms of a number of latent modes, a choice of nonlinear activation functions, and a number of weights contained in the AE model. We find that the AE models are sensitive against the choice of the aforementioned parameters depending on the target flows. Finally, we foresee the extensional applications and perspectives of machine learning based order reduction for numerical and experimental studies in fluid dynamics community.
In recent years, there have been a surge in applications of neural networks (NNs) in physical sciences. Although various algorithmic advances have been proposed, there are, thus far, limited number of studies that assess the interpretability of neural networks. This has contributed to the hasty characterization of most NN methods as black boxes and hindering wider acceptance of more powerful machine learning algorithms for physics. In an effort to address such issues in fluid flow modeling, we use a probabilistic neural network (PNN) that provide confidence intervals for its predictions in a computationally effective manner. The model is first assessed considering the estimation of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) coefficients from local sensor measurements of solution of the shallow water equation. We find that the present model outperforms a well-known linear method with regard to estimation. This model is then applied to the estimation of the temporal evolution of POD coefficients with considering the wake of a NACA0012 airfoil with a Gurney flap and the NOAA sea surface temperature. The present model can accurately estimate the POD coefficients over time in addition to providing confidence intervals thereby quantifying the uncertainty in the output given a particular training data set.
Wall-bounded flows experience a transition to turbulence characterized by the coexistence of laminar and turbulent domains in some range of Reynolds number R, the natural control parameter. This transitional regime takes place between an upper threshold Rt above which turbulence is uniform (featureless) and a lower threshold Rg below which any form of turbulence decays, possibly at the end of overlong chaotic transients. The most emblematic cases of flow along flat plates transiting to/from turbulence according to this scenario are reviewed. The coexistence is generally in the form of bands, alternatively laminar and turbulent, and oriented obliquely with respect to the general flow direction. The final decay of the bands at Rg points to the relevance of directed percolation and criticality in the sense of statistical-physics phase transitions. The nature of the transition at Rt where bands form is still somewhat mysterious and does not easily fit the scheme holding for pattern-forming instabilities at increasing control parameter on a laminar background. In contrast, the bands arise at Rt out of a uniform turbulent background at a decreasing control parameter. Ingredients of a possible theory of laminar-turbulent patterning are discussed.
On its way to turbulence, plane Couette flow - the flow between counter-translating parallel plates - displays a puzzling steady oblique laminar-turbulent pattern. We approach this problem via Galerkin modelling of the Navier-Stokes equations. The wall-normal dependence of the hydrodynamic field is treated by means of expansions on functional bases fitting the boundary conditions exactly. This yields a set of partial differential equations for the spatiotemporal dynamics in the plane of the flow. Truncating this set beyond lowest nontrivial order is numerically shown to produce the expected pattern, therefore improving over what was obtained at cruder effective wall-normal resolution. Perspectives opened by the approach are discussed.
Turbulent-laminar intermittency, typically in the form of bands and spots, is a ubiquitous feature of the route to turbulence in wall-bounded shear flows. Here we study the idealised shear between stress-free boundaries driven by a sinusoidal body force and demonstrate quantitative agreement between turbulence in this flow and that found in the interior of plane Couette flow -- the region excluding the boundary layers. Exploiting the absence of boundary layers, we construct a model flow that uses only four Fourier modes in the shear direction and yet robustly captures the range of spatiotemporal phenomena observed in transition, from spot growth to turbulent bands and uniform turbulence. The model substantially reduces the cost of simulating intermittent turbulent structures while maintaining the essential physics and a direct connection to the Navier-Stokes equations. We demonstrate the generic nature of this process by introducing stress-free equivalent flows for plane Poiseuille and pipe flows which again capture the turbulent-laminar structures seen in transition.
Generalizability of machine-learning (ML) based turbulence closures to accurately predict unseen practical flows remains an important challenge. It is well recognized that the ML neural network architecture and training protocol profoundly influence the generalizability characteristics. The objective of this work is to identify the unique challenges in finding the ML closure network hyperparameters that arise due to the inherent complexity of turbulence. Three proxy-physics turbulence surrogates of different degrees of complexity (yet significantly simpler than turbulence physics) are employed. The proxy-physics models mimic some of the key features of turbulence and provide training/testing data at low computational expense. The focus is on the following turbulence features: high dimensionality of flow physics parameter space, non-linearity effects and bifurcations in emergent behavior. A standard fully-connected neural network is used to reproduce the data of simplified proxy-physics turbulence surrogates. Lacking a rigorous procedure to find globally optimal ML neural network hyperparameters, a brute-force parameter-space sweep is performed to examine the existence of locally optimal solution. Even for this simple case, it is demonstrated that the choice of the optimal hyperparameters for a fully-connected neural network is not straightforward when it is trained with the partially available data in parameter space. Overall, specific issues to be addressed are identified, and the findings provide a realistic perspective on the utility of ML turbulence closures for practical applications.