An Improved Neural Particle Method for Complex Free Surface Flow Simulation Using Physics-Informed Neural Networks

Abstract

The research on free surface flow is of great interest in fluid mechanics, with the primary task being the tracking and description of the motion of free surfaces. The development of numerical simulation techniques has led to the application of new methods in the study of free surface flow problems. One such method is the Neural Particle Method (NPM), a meshless approach for solving incompressible free surface flow. This method is built on a Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN), which allows for training and solving based solely on initial and boundary conditions. Although the NPM is effective in dealing with free surface flow problems, it faces challenges in simulating more complex scenarios due to the lack of additional surface recognition algorithms. In this paper, we propose an improved Neural Particle Method (INPM) to better simulate complex free surface flow. Our approach involves incorporating alpha-shape technology to track and recognize the fluid boundary, with boundary conditions updated constantly during operation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method through three numerical examples with different boundary conditions. The result shows that: (1) the addition of a surface recognition module allows for the accurate tracking and recognition of the fluid boundary, enabling more precise imposition of boundary conditions in complex situations; (2) INPM can accurately identify the surface and calculate even when particles are unevenly distributed. Compared with traditional meshless methods, INPM offers a better solution for dealing with complex free surface flow problems that involve random particle distribution. Our proposed method can improve the accuracy and stability of numerical simulations for free surface flow problems.