Conditional flow matching for generative modelling of near-wall turbulence with quantified uncertainty

Reconstructing near-wall turbulence from wall-based measurements is a critical yet inherently ill-posed problem in wall-bounded flows, where limited sensing and spatially heterogeneous flow–wall coupling challenge deterministic estimation strategies. To address this, we introduce a novel generative modelling framework based on conditional flow matching for synthesising instantaneous velocity fluctuation fields from wall observations, with explicit quantification of predictive uncertainty. Our method integrates continuous-time flow matching with a probabilistic forward operator trained using stochastic weight-averaging Gaussian, enabling zero-shot conditional generation without model re-training. We demonstrate that the proposed approach not only recovers physically realistic, statistically consistent turbulence structures across the near-wall region but also effectively adapts to various sensor configurations, including sparse, incomplete and low-resolution wall measurements. The model achieves robust uncertainty-aware reconstruction, preserving flow intermittency and structure even under significantly degraded observability. Compared with classical linear stochastic estimation and deterministic convolutional neural network methods, our stochastic generative learning framework exhibits superior generalisation for unseen realisations under same flow conditions and resilience under measurement sparsity with quantified uncertainty. This work establishes a robust semi-supervised generative modelling paradigm for data-consistent flow reconstruction and lays the foundation for uncertainty-aware, sensor-driven modelling of wall-bounded turbulence.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Published
2026-02-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2026.11193
Citations
3
Primary Topic
Model Reduction and Neural Networks
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
110.69
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Conditional flow matching for generative modelling of near-wall turbulence with quantified uncertainty

Xiantao Fan, Meet Hemant Parikh, Jian-Xun Wang
3 citations
Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Model Reduction and Neural Networks
110.69
article

Conditional flow matching for generative modelling of near-wall turbulence with quantified uncertainty

Xiantao Fan, Meet Hemant Parikh, Jian-Xun Wang
article en
3 citations

Abstract

Reconstructing near-wall turbulence from wall-based measurements is a critical yet inherently ill-posed problem in wall-bounded flows, where limited sensing and spatially heterogeneous flow–wall coupling challenge deterministic estimation strategies. To address this, we introduce a novel generative modelling framework based on conditional flow matching for synthesising instantaneous velocity fluctuation fields from wall observations, with explicit quantification of predictive uncertainty. Our method integrates continuous-time flow matching with a probabilistic forward operator trained using stochastic weight-averaging Gaussian, enabling zero-shot conditional generation without model re-training. We demonstrate that the proposed approach not only recovers physically realistic, statistically consistent turbulence structures across the near-wall region but also effectively adapts to various sensor configurations, including sparse, incomplete and low-resolution wall measurements. The model achieves robust uncertainty-aware reconstruction, preserving flow intermittency and structure even under significantly degraded observability. Compared with classical linear stochastic estimation and deterministic convolutional neural network methods, our stochastic generative learning framework exhibits superior generalisation for unseen realisations under same flow conditions and resilience under measurement sparsity with quantified uncertainty. This work establishes a robust semi-supervised generative modelling paradigm for data-consistent flow reconstruction and lays the foundation for uncertainty-aware, sensor-driven modelling of wall-bounded turbulence.

Journal of Fluid MechanicsVol. 1029
University of Notre Dame (US), Cornell University (US)
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Model Reduction and Neural Networks
110.69
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.