Embedded Parameter Information in Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks for Compressor Airfoil Design

Abstract

The use of conditional generative adversarial networks has become popular with the advancement of computer power, and in particular graphics processing units. Large hardware and software companies such as Google, IBM, and Facebook have been experimenting in this field for over a decade for facial recognition, image classification and pattern recognition, and deep fake facial and object design. One essential key to their success is access to large quantities of tagged and classified images, with millions of images typically being used. In contrast, relatively few similar advances have been seen in the engineering sector, mainly because engineering analyses that produce suitable images are often very expensive processes that absorb a considerable amount of effort to generate. In addition, feeding synthetically generated image data back into traditional engineering workflows is not entirely straightforward. In this paper we show how adversarial networks can be used if order images are available and focused on the problem in hand. In particular we show how such images can then be augmented with histograms and glyphs to enhance the image content with pictorial representations of numerical data. This is shown to significantly assist the network training process on our data when used in contexts where numerical data categorizing individual images are available and numerical performance measures of products must be predicted. Crucially, it allows for follow-on analyses without the need to use artificially generated flow fields.