Machine-learning based error prediction approach for coarse-grid Computational Fluid Dynamics (CG-CFD)

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is one of the modeling approaches essential to identifying the parameters that affect Containment Thermal Hydraulics (CTH) phenomena. While the CFD approach can capture the multidimensional behavior of CTH phenomena, its computational cost is high when modeling complex accident scenarios. To mitigate this expense, we propose reliance on coarse-grid CFD (CG-CFD). Coarsening the computational grid increases the grid-induced error thus requiring a novel approach that will produce a surrogate model predicting the distribution of the CG-CFD local error and correcting the fluid-flow variables. Given sufficiently fine-mesh simulations, a surrogate model can be trained to predict the CG-CFD local errors as a function of the coarse-grid local flow features. The surrogate model is constructed using Machine Learning (ML) regression algorithms. Two of the widely used ML regression algorithms were tested: Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Random Forest (RF). The proposed CG-CFD method is illustrated with a three-dimensional turbulent flow inside a lid-driven cavity. We studied a set of scenarios to investigate the capability of the surrogate model to interpolate and extrapolate outside the training data range. The proposed method has proven capable of correcting the coarse-grid results and obtaining reasonable predictions for new cases (of different Reynolds number, different grid sizes, or larger geometries). Based on the investigated cases, we found this novel method maximizes the benefit of the available data and shows potential for a good predictive capability.