MTK: PDEs & Collocation/weighted residual method

Specific Domains Modelling & Simulations
1

I’m trying to dig up some past knowledge on the “weighted residual method” – it seems to be quite similar to PINN.

How can I make the following more elegant? To exemplify, I consider a co-current heat exchanger:

\frac{\partial T_1}{\partial t} + v_1\frac{\partial T_1}{\partial x} = \alpha_1 (T_1 - T_2) \\ \frac{\partial T_2}{\partial t} + v_2\frac{\partial T_2}{\partial x} = \alpha_2 (T_2 - T_1)

with boundary conditions that T_j(t,x=0) = T_j^\mathrm{i}(t) are known functions of time.

The idea is to postulate “trial solutions” T_j^*(t,x) — these would be NN:s in PINNs, I guess. I choose trial solutions that satisfy the boundary conditions.

Next, I choose the collocation variant of weighted residual method (i.e., delta dirac weights in the “error integral”).

Here is my running code:

# Packages
using ModelingToolkit
using DifferentialEquations
using Symbolics
using Plots

# Some MTK definitions
@variables t x
Dt = Differential(t)
Dx = Differential(x)
@parameters v_1=1 α_1=0.1 v_2=2 α_2=0.5 L=10
@variables T_10(t) T_1M(t)=0 T_1L(t)=0 T_20(t)=0 T_2M(t)=0 T_2L(t)=0
#
@register_symbolic T_1i(t)
@register_symbolic T_2i(t)

# Trial solutions -- very simple for now
T_1t = T_10*(x-L)/(0 - L)*(x-L/2)/(0-L/2) + T_1M*(x-L)/(L/2 - L)*(x-0)/(L/2-0) + T_1L*(x-L/2)/(L-L/2)*(x-0)/(L-0)
T_2t = T_20*(x-L)/(0 - L)*(x-L/2)/(0-L/2) + T_2M*(x-L)/(L/2 - L)*(x-0)/(L/2-0) + T_2L*(x-L/2)/(L-L/2)*(x-0)/(L-0)

# Function for generating residuals
residual(T1,T2) = expand_derivatives.([Dt(T1) + v_1*Dx(T1) + α_1*(T1-T2),
            Dt(T2) + v_2*Dx(T2) + α_2*(T2-T1)])

# Converting actual residuals to equations
res = residual(T_1t,T_2t)

eqs = [substitute(res[1], [x => L/2]) ~ 0,
    substitute(res[1], [x => L]) ~ 0,
    substitute(res[2], [x => L/2]) ~ 0,
    substitute(res[2], [x => L]) ~ 0,
    T_10 ~ T_1i(t),
    T_20 ~ T_2i(t)]

# Symbolic model  + simplified model
@named sys_ns = ODESystem(eqs,t)
sys = structural_simplify(sys_ns)

# Defining timespan + numeric problem + concrete inputs, and then solving the problem
tspan = (0,50)
#
prob = ODEProblem(sys,[],tspan)
#
T_1i(t) = t<10 ? 10 : 20
T_2i(t) = t<20 ? 5 : 15
#
sol = solve(prob, QNDF())

plot(sol)

Just to illustrate, the solution is as follows:

image
image715×479 28.8 KB

I have used simple polynomials as “basis functions” in the spatial direction x; T_jM is the value of the temperature midways between [0,L].

An alternative would be to use some “Finite Element” type basis functions.

Questions

  1. How would I need to change the code to get trial solutions T_j^* that are real functions of time and space, which I can plot in a more elegant way? Right now, I can only plot values in the chosen collocation points (x=0, x=L/2, x=L).

  2. The MOL equations for PDEs based on collocation can be generated quite fast, leading to ODEs/DAEs that can be efficiently solved using DifferentialEquations solvers. The extra cost of changing the time span is small.

  • How does this compare to PINN?
  • Does PINN solvers train on a specific domain in time and space, so that the training has to be completely re-done if I, e.g., extend the time span?
2

Is there a reason why you didn’t try MethodOfLines.jl on this? That seems like it would be the most natural.

3

PINNs are flexible but slow

1 Like
4

No real reason for not trying MOL. I just want to understand PINNs and contrast with things I already know.

5

MethodOfLines.jl is probably the best fit here. PINNs have applications but they are odd and will not solve faster than a classical method if it’s optimized. The cases are PINNs are for where there are no optimized classical methods implemented, like high dimensional PDEs (and by high I mean like >5), non-local operators like integro-differential equations (though there are classical techniques that should do better, just not all implementated), etc. If you do not care about the solve time and instead just want a surrogate, they can be a good surrogate model over large parameter spaces.

1 Like
6

For my interests, I’d consider methods where I can change the simulation time span without doing excessive re-training.

I had to remove the MethodOfLines.jl package to update ModelingToolkit.jl to a version supporting the new macros; I assume those problems perhaps have been fixed now?

7

yes I fixed that recently, our compathelper has been having problems on that repo