Publications

Near-wall modeling using coordinate frame invariant representations and neural networks

Miller, Nathan M.; Barone, Matthew F.; Davis, Warren L.; Fike, Jeffrey A.

Near-wall turbulence models in Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) typically approximate near-wall behavior using a solution to the mean flow equations. This approach inevitably leads to errors when the modeled flow does not satisfy the assumptions surrounding the use of a mean flow approximation for an unsteady boundary condition. Herein, modern machine learning (ML) techniques are utilized to implement a coordinate frame invariant model of the wall shear stress that is derived specifically for complex flows for which mean near-wall models are known to fail. The model operates on a set of scalar and vector invariants based on data taken from the first LES grid point off the wall. Neural networks were trained and validated on spatially filtered direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. The trained networks were then tested on data to which they were never previously exposed and comparisons of the accuracy of the networks’ predictions of wall-shear stress were made to both a standard mean wall model approach and to the true stress values taken from the DNS data. The ML approach showed considerable improvement in both the accuracy of individual shear stress predictions as well as produced a more accurate distribution of wall shear stress values than did the standard mean wall model. This result held both in regions where the standard mean approach typically performs satisfactorily as well as in regions where it is known to fail, and also in cases where the networks were trained and tested on data taken from the same flow type/region as well as when trained and tested on data from different respective flow topologies.