Investigation of Compressor Cascade Flow Using Physics-Informed Neural Networks with Adaptive Learning Strategy

In this study, we utilize the emerging physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) approach for the first time to predict the flowfield of a compressor cascade. Different from conventional training methods, a new adaptive learning strategy that mitigates gradient imbalance through incorporating adaptive weights in conjunction with a dynamically adjusting learning rate is used during the training process to improve the convergence of PINNs. The performance of PINNs is assessed here by solving both the forward and inverse problems. In the forward problem, by encapsulating the physical relations among relevant variables, PINNs demonstrate their effectiveness in accurately forecasting the compressor’s flowfield. PINNs also show obvious advantages over the traditional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approaches, particularly in scenarios lacking complete boundary conditions, as is often the case in inverse engineering problems. PINNs successfully reconstruct the flowfield of the compressor cascade solely based on partial velocity vectors and near-wall pressure information. Furthermore, PINNs show robust performance in the environment of various levels of aleatory uncertainties stemming from labeled data. This research provides evidence that PINNs can offer turbomachinery designers an additional and promising option alongside the current dominant CFD methods.