arXiv subjects

Wolfgang Schröder

Publications and source records attributed to Wolfgang Schröder.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The HydroGym Reinforcement Learning Platform for Fluid Dynamics

Modeling and controlling fluids is critical across science and engineering. Effective flow control can increase lift, reduce drag, enhance mixing, and attenuate noise, potentially unlocking new technologies. Yet controlling fluids is hard: the dynamics are high-dimensional, nonlinear, and multiscale. While reinforcement learning (RL) has recently succeeded in robotics and protein folding through shared benchmarks, fluid dynamics has resisted such progress: each controller is typically tuned to a single geometry and operating point, making results hard to accumulate, transfer, and compare. We introduce HydroGym, a solver-independent RL platform for flow control, and show that standardized infrastructure unlocks transferable control intelligence across flow regimes. HydroGym provides 61+ validated environments spanning laminar to turbulent flows, with systematic Reynolds number progressions up to Re=400,000 and Mach number variations in 2D and 3D. It supports diverse backends, including finite-volume, spectral-element, finite-element, lattice-Boltzmann, and fully differentiable solvers for gradient-enhanced optimization. Across environments, RL agents consistently discover robust control principles, such as boundary-layer manipulation, acoustic-feedback disruption, and wake reorganization, yielding drag reductions exceeding 90% in canonical configurations. Critically, we demonstrate zero-shot transfer: agents trained only on a simplified channel flow achieve 38% friction-drag reduction on an unseen 3D wing section at chord Reynolds number Re=200,000 reducing exploration costs by four orders of magnitude versus direct on-wing optimization. This suggests RL agents uncover essential physics rather than configuration-specific patterns, pointing toward generalizable control. HydroGym offers extensible, scalable community infrastructure for fluid dynamics, machine learning, and control research.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

Coupled Level-Set Lattice Boltzmann Method on Adaptive Cartesian Grids

A novel coupled level-set lattice Boltzmann method on adaptive Cartesian grids for simulating liquid-gas multiphase flows is presented. The approach addresses the inherent challenges of accurately modeling multiphase systems characterized by sharp interfaces and large density ratios. By employing separate solution algorithms for each fluid phase which are coupled through boundary conditions at the interface the method is more accurate and more efficient. The study highlights the advantages of using lattice Boltzmann methods together with level-set techniques to track interfaces effectively while facilitating adaptive mesh refinement. Applications to various test cases, e.g., immiscible stratified flow and rising bubbles, demonstrate the method's capability to capture complex interfacial dynamics and validate its accuracy against literature data.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Comparative Analysis of the Flow in a Realistic Human Airway

Accurate simulations of the flow in the human airway are essential for advancing diagnostic methods. Many existing computational studies rely on simplified geometries or turbulence models, limiting their simulation's ability to resolve flow features such shear-layer instabilities or secondary vortices. In this study, direct numerical simulations were performed for inspiratory flow through a detailed airway model which covers the nasal mask region to the 6th bronchial bifurcation. Simulations were conducted at two physiologically relevant \textsc{Reynolds} numbers with respect to the pharyngeal diameter, i.e., at Re_p=400 (resting) and Re_p=1200 (elevated breathing). These values characterize resting and moderately elevated breathing conditions. A lattice-Boltzmann method was employed to directly simulate the flow, i.e., no turbulence model was used. The flow field was examined across four anatomical regions: 1) the nasal cavity, 2) the naso- and oropharynx, 3) the laryngopharynx and larynx, and 4) the trachea and carinal bifurcation. The total pressure loss increased from 9.76 Pa at Re_p=400 to 41.93 Pa at Re_p=1200. The nasal cavity accounted for the majority of this loss for both Reynolds numbers, though its relative contribution decreased from 81.3% at Re_p=400 to 73.4% at Re_p=1200. At Re_p=1200, secondary vortices in the nasopharyngeal bend and turbulent shear-layers in the glottis jet enhanced the local pressure losses. In contrast, the carinal bifurcation mitigated upstream unsteadiness and stabilized the flow. A key outcome is the spatial correlation between the pressure loss and the onset of flow instabilities across the four regions. This yields a novel perspective on how the flow resistance and vortex dynamics vary with geometric changes and flow rate.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Impact of Engine Nacelle Flow on Buffet

The transonic flow around the OAT15A airfoil is computed at buffet conditions, i.e., freestream Mach number $Ma_\infty = 0.73$, chord-based freestream Reynolds number $Re_c = 2\cdot10^6$, and angle of attack $α= 3.5^\circ$ using wall-modeled LES. Two configurations are considered, one which includes a generic ultra-high bypass ratio (UHBR) engine nacelle geometry and one without an engine, which is denoted the baseline case. The introduction of the UHBR-engine nacelle leads to a significant deviation of the flow onto the airfoil from the baseline case and has an essential effect on the occurring shock dynamics. The flow field of the nacelle configuration is characterized by a shock wave on the upper part of the nacelle sharing dynamic features with the shock on the airfoil. This impact of the nacelle shock on the airfoil shock means a reduced strength of the airfoil shock resulting in a less developed buffet. The perturbation of the general flow field is evaluated as to established buffet models and the dynamic features of the shock waves are analyzed by the sparsity-promoting dynamic mode decomposition. This analysis shows the existence of a shared dynamic mode of the nacelle and the airfoil shock which suggests a coupling mechanism between them.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Extending the aircraft flight envelope by mitigating transonic airfoil buffet

In the age of globalization, commercial aviation plays a central role in maintaining our international connectivity by providing fast air transport services for passengers and freight. However, the upper limit of the aircraft flight envelope, i.e., its operational limit in the high-speed regime, is usually fixed by the occurrence of an aerodynamic phenomenon called transonic airfoil buffet. It refers to shock wave oscillations occurring on the aircraft wings, which induce unsteady aerodynamic loads acting on the wing structure. Since these loads can cause severe structural damage endangering flight safety, the aviation industry is highly interested in suppressing transonic airfoil buffet to extend the flight envelope to higher aircraft speeds. In this contribution, we demonstrate experimentally that the application of porous trailing edges substantially attenuates the buffet phenomenon. Since porous trailing edges have the additional benefit of reducing acoustic aircraft emissions, our findings could pave the way for faster air transport with reduced noise emissions.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2023

Trailing-Edge Noise Reduction using Porous Treatment and Surrogate-based Global Optimization

Broadband noise reduction is a significant problem in aerospace and industrial applications. Specifically, the noise generated from the trailing edge of an airfoil poses a challenging problem with various proposed solutions. This study investigates the porous trailing edge treatment. We use surrogate-based gradient-free optimization and an empirical noise model to efficiently explore the design space and find the optimal porosity distribution. As a result, a predicted 8-10 dB reduction in the broadband 300-5000 Hz was achieved. Furthermore, the optimal design emphasizes the design space's complexity and global exploration's difficulty. Further, the optimal design presents a low porous solution while constituting significant noise reduction.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Algorithmic differentiation of hyperbolic flow problems

We are interested in the development of an algorithmic differentiation framework for computing approximations to tangent vectors to scalar and systems of hyperbolic partial differential equations. The main difficulty of such a numerical method is the presence of shock waves that are resolved by proposing a numerical discretization of the calculus introduced in Bressan and Marson [Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Padova, 94:79-94, 1995]. Numerical results are presented for the one-dimensional Burgers equation and the Euler equations. Using the essential routines of a state-of-the-art code for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a starting point, three modifications are required to apply the introduced calculus. First, the CFD code is modified to solve an additional equation for the shock location. Second, we customize the computation of the corresponding tangent to the shock location. Finally, the modified method is enhanced by algorithmic differentiation. Applying the introduced calculus to problems of the Burgers equation and the Euler equations, it is found that correct sensitivities can be computed, whereas the application of black-box algorithmic differentiation fails.

math.NA↗

arXiv2019

Experimental investigation of the turbulent Schmidt number in supersonic film cooling with shock interaction

The interaction of an impinging shock and a supersonic helium cooling film is investigated experimentally by high-speed particle-image velocimetry. A laminar helium jet is tangentially injected into a turbulent air freestream at a freestream Mach number $Ma_\infty=2.45$. The helium cooling film is injected at a Mach number $Ma_i=1.30$ at a total temperature ratio $T_{0,i}/T_{0,\infty}=0.75$. A deflection $β=8°$ generates a shock that impinges upon the cooling film. A shock interaction case and a reference case without shock interaction are considered. The helium mass fraction fluctuations are measured and the turbulent mass flux as well as the turbulent Schmidt number are determined qualitatively. For comparison, large-eddy simulation (LES) results of a comparable flow configuration are used. The streamwise and wall-normal turbulent mass fluxes are in qualitative agreement with the LES data. The turbulent Schmidt number differs significantly from unity. Without shock interaction, the turbulent Schmidt number is in the range $0.5 \leq Sc_t \leq 1.5$ which is in agreement with the literature. With shock interaction, the turbulent Schmidt number varies drastically in the vicinity of the shock interaction. Thus, the experimental results confirm the numerical data showing a massively varying turbulent Schmidt number in supersonic film cooling flows, i.e., the standard assumption of a constant turbulent Schmidt number is valid neither without nor with shock interaction.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Actuation response model from sparse data for wall turbulence drag reduction

We compute, model, and predict drag reduction of an actuated turbulent boundary layer at a momentum thickness based Reynolds number of Reθ = 1000. The actuation is performed using spanwise traveling transversal surface waves parameterized by wavelength, amplitude, and period. The drag reduction for the set of actuation parameters is modeled using 71 large-eddy simulations (LES). This drag model allows to extrapolate outside the actuation domain for larger wavelengths and amplitudes. The modeling novelty is based on combining support vector regression for interpolation, a parameterized ridgeline leading out of the data domain, scaling from Tomiyama and Fukagata (2013), and a discovered self-similar structure of the actuation effect. The model yields high prediction accuracy outside the training data range.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2019

Drag Reduction and Energy Saving by Spanwise Traveling Transversal Surface Waves for Flat Plate Flow

Wall-resolved large-eddy simulations are performed to study the impact of spanwise traveling transversal surface waves in zero-pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer flow. Eighty variations of wavelength, period, and amplitude of the space- and time-dependent sinusoidal wall motion are considered for a boundary layer at a momentum thickness based Reynolds number of $Re_θ= 1000$. The results show a strong decrease of friction drag of up to $26\,\%$ and considerable net power saving of up to $10\,\%$. However, the highest net power saving does not occur at the maximum drag reduction. The drag reduction is modeled as a function of the actuation parameters by support vector regression using the LES data. A substantial attenuation of the near-wall turbulence intensity and especially a weakening of the near-wall velocity streaks are observed. Similarities between the current actuation technique and the method of a spanwise oscillating wall without any normal surface deflection are reported. In particular, the generation of a directional spanwise oscillating Stokes layer is found to be related to skin-friction reduction.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Metric for attractor overlap

We present the first general metric for attractor overlap (MAO) facilitating an unsupervised comparison of flow data sets. The starting point is two or more attractors, i.e., ensembles of states representing different operating conditions. The proposed metric generalizes the standard Hilbert-space distance between two snapshots to snapshot ensembles of two attractors. A reduced-order analysis for big data and many attractors is enabled by coarse-graining the snapshots into representative clusters with corresponding centroids and population probabilities. For a large number of attractors, MAO is augmented by proximity maps for the snapshots, the centroids, and the attractors, giving scientifically interpretable visual access to the closeness of the states. The coherent structures belonging to the overlap and disjoint states between these attractors are distilled by few representative centroids. We employ MAO for two quite different actuated flow configurations: (1) a two-dimensional wake of the fluidic pinball with vortices in a narrow frequency range and (2) three-dimensional wall turbulence with broadband frequency spectrum manipulated by spanwise traveling transversal surface waves. MAO compares and classifies these actuated flows in agreement with physical intuition. For instance, the first feature coordinate of the attractor proximity map correlates with drag for the fluidic pinball and for the turbulent boundary layer. MAO has a large spectrum of potential applications ranging from a quantitative comparison between numerical simulations and experimental particle-image velocimetry data to the analysis of simulations representing a myriad of different operating conditions.

physics.flu-dyn↗