Discretize first, filter next – a new closure model approach

Simulating multi-scale phenomena such as turbulent fluid flows is typically computationally very expensive. Filtering the smaller scales allows for using coarse discretizations, however, this requires closure models to account for the effects of the unresolved on the resolved scales. The common approach is to filter the continuous equations, but this gives rise to several commutator errors due to nonlinear terms, non-uniform filters, or boundary conditions. We propose a new approach to filtering, where the equations are discretized first and then filtered. For a non-uniform filter applied to the linear convection equation, we show that the discretely filtered convection operator can be inferred using three methods: intrusive (`explicit reconstruction') or non-intrusive operator inference, either via `derivative fitting' or `trajectory fitting' (embedded learning). We show that explicit reconstruction and derivative fitting identify a similar operator and produce small errors, but that trajectory fitting requires significant effort to train to achieve similar performance. However, the explicit reconstruction approach is more prone to instabilities.

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