Prediction of the dynamics of a backward-facing step flow using focused time-delay neural networks and particle image velocimetry data-sets

By Antonios Giannopoulos, Jean-Luc Aider in International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow

The objective of this experimental work was to evaluate the potential of an artificial Neural Network (NN) to predict the full-field dynamics of a standard separated, noise-amplifier flow: the Backward-Facing Step (BFS) flow at Reh=1385. Different upstream local visual sensors, based on the velocity fields measured by time-resolved Particle Image Velocimetry, were tested as inputs for the Neural Network. The dynamic coefficients of a Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) were defined as goals-outputs for this non-linear mapping. The coefficients time-series were predicted and the instantaneous velocity fields were reconstructed with satisfying accuracy with a Focused Time-Delay Neural Network (FTDNN). Using a time-delay appears like a crucial choice to ensure an accurate prediction of the dynamics of the BFS flow. A shallow FDTNN is sufficient to obtain good accuracy with low computational time. The influence of the choices of inputs-sensors, the size of the training data-set, the number of neurons in the hidden layer as well as the sensor delay on the accuracy of the predicted flow are discussed for this experimental fluid system.