Balance equations for physics-informed machine learning

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Using traditional machine learning (ML) methods may produce results that are inconsistent with the laws of physics. In contrast, physics-based models of complex physical, biological, or engineering systems incorporate the laws of physics as constraints on ML methods by introducing loss terms, ensuring that the results are consistent with these laws. However, accurately deriving the nonlinear and high order differential equations to enforce various complex physical laws is non-trivial. There is a lack of comprehensive guidance on the formulation of residual loss terms. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a new framework based on the balance equations, which aims to advance the development of PIML across multiple domains by providing a systematic approach to constructing residual loss terms that maintain the physical integrity of PDE solutions. The proposed balance equation method offers a unified treatment of all the fundamental equations of classical physics used in models of mechanical, electrical, and chemical systems and guides the derivation of differential equations for embedding physical laws in ML models. We show that all of these equations can be derived from a single equation known as the generic balance equation, in conjunction with specific constitutive relations that bind the balance equation to a particular domain. We also provide a few simple worked examples how to use our balance equation method in practice for PIML. Our approach suggests that a single framework can be followed to incorporate physics into ML models. This level of generalization may provide the basis for more efficient methods of developing physics-based ML for complex systems.