Amirhossein Arzani, Lingxiao Yuan, Pania Newell et al.
Although deep learning has achieved remarkable success in various scientific machine learning applications, its opaque nature poses concerns regarding interpretability and generalization capabilities beyond the training data. Interpretability is crucial and often desired in modeling physical systems. Moreover, acquiring extensive datasets that encompass the entire range of input features is challenging in many physics-based learning tasks, leading to increased errors when encountering out-of-distribution (OOD) data. In this work, motivated by the field of functional data analysis (FDA), we propose generalized functional linear models as an interpretable surrogate for a trained deep learning model. We demonstrate that our model could be trained either based on a trained neural network (post-hoc interpretation) or directly from training data (interpretable operator learning). A library of generalized functional linear models with different kernel functions is considered and sparse regression is used to discover an interpretable surrogate model that could be analytically presented. We present test cases in solid mechanics, fluid mechanics, and transport. Our results demonstrate that our model can achieve comparable accuracy to deep learning and can improve OOD generalization while providing more transparency and interpretability. Our study underscores the significance of interpretable representation in scientific machine learning and showcases the potential of functional linear models as a tool for interpreting and generalizing deep learning.
Mahmoud Elhadidy, Siva Viknesh, Roshan M. D'Souza et al.
Wall shear stress (WSS) governs near-wall transport dynamics and is a key hemodynamic indicator in cardiovascular flows, yet remains difficult to infer accurately due to the need for precise computation of near-wall velocity gradients. Passive scalar fields, such as concentration or temperature, are advected by the same underlying velocity field and have the potential to uncover hidden flow physics metrics such as WSS. In this work, we demonstrate such reconstruction from spatially limited passive scalar observations using two fundamentally different inverse frameworks: a differentiable physics framework based on discrete adjoint, PDE-constrained optimization, which enforces the governing equations as hard constraints, and physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), which treat them as soft constraints. Benchmark problems include a 2D canonical backward-facing step (2D-BFS) and a 3D patient-specific stenotic coronary artery. For the 2D-BFS case, evaluated under three measurement scenarios (near-wall, far-field, and combined), PINN achieves high accuracy when near-wall data are available but fails when restricted to far-field measurements, whereas the differentiable physics approach recovers accurate WSS across all scenarios. In the 3D patient-specific case, the differentiable physics framework outperforms PINNs, yielding accurate WSS reconstruction. These results establish that measurement location and inverse formulation jointly determine reconstruction fidelity in scalar-based near-wall flow inference. The proposed framework opens a path toward estimation of near-wall hemodynamics from scalar transport data, with broader applicability to fluid flow problems where passive scalars can be observed.
Salah A Faroughi, Farinaz Mostajeran, Amirhossein Arzani et al.
Symbolic discovery of governing equations is a long-standing goal in scientific machine learning, yet a fundamental trade-off persists between interpretability and scalable learning. Classical symbolic regression methods yield explicit analytic expressions but rely on combinatorial search, whereas neural networks scale efficiently with data and dimensionality but produce opaque representations. In this work, we introduce Symbolic Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (Symbolic-KANs), a neural architecture that bridges this gap by embedding discrete symbolic structure directly within a trainable deep network. Symbolic-KANs represent multivariate functions as compositions of learned univariate primitives applied to learned scalar projections, guided by a library of analytic primitives, hierarchical gating, and symbolic regularization that progressively sharpens continuous mixtures into one-hot selections. After gated training and discretization, each active unit selects a single primitive and projection direction, yielding compact closed-form expressions without post-hoc symbolic fitting. Symbolic-KANs further act as scalable primitive discovery mechanisms, identifying the most relevant analytic components that can subsequently inform candidate libraries for sparse equation-learning methods. We demonstrate that Symbolic-KAN reliably recovers correct primitive terms and governing structures in data-driven regression and inverse dynamical systems. Moreover, the framework extends to forward and inverse physics-informed learning of partial differential equations, producing accurate solutions directly from governing constraints while constructing compact symbolic representations whose selected primitives reflect the true analytical structure of the underlying equations. These results position Symbolic-KAN as a step toward scalable, interpretable, and mechanistically grounded learning of governing laws.
Computational cardiovascular flow modeling plays a crucial role in understanding blood flow dynamics. While 3D models provide acute details, they are computationally expensive, especially with fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulations. 1D models offer a computationally efficient alternative, by simplifying the 3D Navier-Stokes equations through axisymmetric flow assumption and cross-sectional averaging. However, traditional 1D models based on finite element methods (FEM) often lack accuracy compared to 3D averaged solutions. This study introduces a novel physics-constrained machine learning technique that enhances the accuracy of 1D blood flow models while maintaining computational efficiency. Our approach, utilizing a physics-constrained coupled neural differential equation (PCNDE) framework, demonstrates superior performance compared to conventional FEM-based 1D models across a wide range of inlet boundary condition waveforms and stenosis blockage ratios. A key innovation lies in the spatial formulation of the momentum conservation equation, departing from the traditional temporal approach and capitalizing on the inherent temporal periodicity of blood flow. This spatial neural differential equation formulation switches space and time and overcomes issues related to coupling stability and smoothness, while simplifying boundary condition implementation. The model accurately captures flow rate, area, and pressure variations for unseen waveforms and geometries. We evaluate the model's robustness to input noise and explore the loss landscapes associated with the inclusion of different physics terms. This advanced 1D modeling technique offers promising potential for rapid cardiovascular simulations, achieving computational efficiency and accuracy. By combining the strengths of physics-based and data-driven modeling, this approach enables fast and accurate cardiovascular simulations.
Scientific machine learning has enabled the extraction of physical insights from high-dimensional spatiotemporal flow data using linear and nonlinear dimensionality reduction techniques. Despite these advances, achieving interpretability within the latent space remains a challenge. To address this, we propose the DIfferentiable Autoencoding Neural Operator (DIANO), a deterministic autoencoding neural operator framework that constructs physically interpretable latent spaces for both dimensional and geometric reduction, with the provision to enforce differential governing equations directly within the latent space. Built upon neural operators, DIANO compresses high-dimensional input functions into a low-dimensional latent space via spatial coarsening through an encoding neural operator and subsequently reconstructs the original inputs using a decoding neural operator through spatial refinement. We assess DIANO's latent space interpretability and performance in dimensionality reduction against baseline models, including the Convolutional Neural Operator and standard autoencoders. Furthermore, a fully differentiable partial differential equation (PDE) solver is developed and integrated within the latent space, enabling the temporal advancement of both high- and low-fidelity PDEs, thereby embedding physical priors into the latent dynamics. We further investigate various PDE formulations, including the 2D unsteady advection-diffusion and the 3D Pressure-Poisson equation, to examine their influence on shaping the latent flow representations. Benchmark problems considered include flow past a 2D cylinder, flow through a 2D symmetric stenosed artery, and a 3D patient-specific coronary artery. These case studies demonstrate DIANO's capability to solve PDEs within a latent space that facilitates both dimensional and geometrical reduction while allowing latent interpretability.