A data assimilation and machine learning approach for the numerical prediction of immersed bodies in oscillating motion

Abstract

Data-driven methods have demonstrated strong predictive capabilities in fluid mechanics, yet most current applications still focus on simplified configurations, often characterized by statistical stationarity or limited temporal variability. This work proposes a methodology that combines data assimilation (DA) and machine learning (ML) to numerically predict the flow around immersed bodies moving in oscillatory motion. Starting from limited, sparse high-fidelity measurements and a low-fidelity numerical model, the DA approach performs data fusion to obtain complete and accurate flow state estimations in time. This complete dataset is used to train multiple ML tools, which are applied across different phases of the body motion to augment the model’s predictions when high-fidelity data might not be available for the DA application. The methodology is applied to the analysis of an oscillating cylinder in a laminar regime using a sliding-window approach, in which separate models are trained for specific flow conditions to ensure each model specializes in flow dynamics representative of a phase of the oscillation period. This phase-resolved learning enables the efficient capture of transient features that would be challenging for a single global model. The results highlight the potential of this method to study complex flow configurations due to body motion, where neither the flow nor the cycle is known a priori, particularly by exploiting real-time training and updates, as is commonly done in digital twins, which require continuous model correction and adaptation.