Dynamically orthogonal field equations for continuous stochastic dynamical systems

Abstract

In this work we derive an exact, closed set of evolution equations for general continuous stochastic fields described by a Stochastic Partial Differential Equation (SPDE). By hypothesizing a decomposition of the solution field into a mean and stochastic dynamical component, we derive a system of field equations consisting of a Partial Differential Equation (PDE) for the mean field, a family of PDEs for the orthonormal basis that describe the stochastic subspace where the stochasticity 'lives' as well as a system of Stochastic Differential Equations that defines how the stochasticity evolves in the time varying stochastic subspace. These new evolution equations are derived directly from the original SPDE, using nothing more than a dynamically orthogonal condition on the representation of the solution. If additional restrictions are assumed on the form of the representation, we recover both the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition equations and the generalized Polynomial Chaos equations. We apply this novel methodology to two cases of two-dimensional viscous fluid flows described by the Navier-Stokes equations and we compare our results with Monte Carlo simulations.