Deep learning in fluid dynamics

Abstract

It was only a matter of time before deep neural networks (DNNs) - deep learning - made their mark in turbulence modelling, or more broadly, in the general area of high-dimensional, complex dynamical systems. In the last decade, DNNs have become a dominant data mining tool for big data applications. Although neural networks have been applied previously to complex fluid flows, the article featured here (Ling et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 807, 2016, pp. 155-166) is the first to apply a true DNN architecture, specifically to Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes turbulence models. As one often expects with modern DNNs, performance gains are achieved over competing state-of-the-art methods, suggesting that DNNs may play a critically enabling role in the future of modelling complex flows.