Multi-Fidelity Learning with Shallow Recurrent Decoders for Multi-Physics Applications

Abstract

In reactor physics, neutronics and multi-physics phenomena can be modelled at different fidelity levels. High-fidelity models based on the Boltzmann transport equation, multi-group diffusion, or computational fluid dynamics are computationally demanding, whereas simplified models, such as zero-dimensional lumped formulations, can be evaluated efficiently at the cost of neglecting spatial details. The computational intractability of detailed models translates into a scarcity of high-fidelity data and an abundance of low-fidelity data, motivating the development of multi-fidelity (MF) learning strategies able to map between the two. This work extends Shallow Recurrent Decoders (SHRED), a machine learning architecture that reconstructs high-dimensional fields from time-series measurements, to multi-fidelity reduced-order modelling, in which the input trajectories are provided by a low-fidelity model. The resulting MF-SHRED is assessed on three benchmark problems: (i) a two-group point-kinetics-to-diffusion; (ii) a non-linear reaction-advection-diffusion system of six chemical species; and (iii) the coupled neutronics-thermal-hydraulics multi-physics model of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR). Across all three cases, MF-SHRED reconstructs the high-fidelity fields with relative errors below a few percent, closely approaching the truncation error of the underlying proper orthogonal decomposition, while reducing the computational cost by three orders of magnitude relative to the corresponding high-fidelity solver. MF-SHRED performs comparably to the original sparse-sensor SHRED formulation. These results support the use of MF-SHRED as a non-intrusive reduced-order modelling strategy for reactor physics and multi-physics applications, particularly for design and safety analysis tasks that must be carried out before a facility is even built.