A Knowledge-Inspired Hierarchical Physics-Informed Neural Network for Pipeline Hydraulic Transient Simulation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a hierarchical physics-informed neural network that incorporates physical laws and hierarchical training strategies to improve hydraulic transient simulation accuracy in pipelines, outperforming existing models especially under complex conditions.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel hierarchical physics-informed neural network with magnitude conversion and hierarchical training, enhancing simulation accuracy and efficiency for pipeline hydraulic transients.

Findings

Achieved 87.8% and 92.7% reduction in pressure prediction errors.

Outperformed state-of-the-art models in complex hydraulic transient scenarios.

Produced accurate results with improved training performance.

Abstract

The high-pressure transportation process of pipeline necessitates an accurate hydraulic transient simulation tool to prevent slack line flow and over-pressure, which can endanger pipeline operations. However, current numerical solution methods often face difficulties in balancing computational efficiency and accuracy. Additionally, few studies attempt to reform physics-informed learning architecture for pipeline transient simulation with magnitude different in outputs and imbalanced gradient in loss function. To address these challenges, a Knowledge-Inspired Hierarchical Physics-Informed Neural Network is proposed for hydraulic transient simulation of multi-product pipelines. The proposed model integrates governing equations, boundary conditions, and initial conditions into the training process to ensure consistency with physical laws. Furthermore, magnitude conversion of outputs and equivalent conversion of governing equations are implemented to enhance the training performance of the neural network. To further address the imbalanced gradient of multiple loss terms with fixed weights, a hierarchical training strategy is designed. Numerical simulations demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art models and can still produce accurate simulation results under complex hydraulic transient conditions, with mean absolute percentage errors reduced by 87.8\% and 92.7 \% in pressure prediction. Thus, the proposed model can conduct accurate and effective hydraulic transient analysis, ensuring the safe operation of pipelines.