Deep Convolutional Ritz Method: Parametric PDE surrogates without labeled data

Abstract: Parametric surrogate models for partial differential equations (PDEs) are a necessary component for many applications in the computational sciences, and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have proved as an excellent tool to generate these surrogates when parametric fields are present. CNNs are commonly trained on labeled data based on one-to-one sets of parameter-input and PDE-output fields. Recently, residual-based convolutional physics-informed neural network (CPINN) solvers for parametric PDEs have been proposed to build surrogates without the need for labeled data. These allow for the generation of surrogates without an expensive offline-phase. In this work, we present an alternative formulation termed Deep Convolutional Ritz Method (DCRM) as a parametric PDE solver. The approach is based on the minimization of energy functionals, which lowers the order of the differential operators compared to residual-based methods. Based on studies involving the Poisson equation with a spatially parameterized source term and boundary conditions, we found that CNNs trained on labeled data outperform CPINNs in convergence speed and generalization ability. Surrogates generated from DCRM, however, converge significantly faster than their CPINN counterparts and prove to generalize faster and better than surrogates obtained from both CNNs trained on labeled data and CPINNs. This hints that DCRM could make PDE solution surrogates trained without labeled data possible.