Physics Informed Neural Networks with strong and weak residuals for advection-dominated diffusion problems

Abstract: This paper deals with the following important research questions. Is it possible to solve challenging advection-dominated diffusion problems in one and two dimensions using Physics Informed Neural Networks (PINN) and Variational Physics Informed Neural Networks (VPINN)? How does it compare to the higher-order and continuity Finite Element Method (FEM)? How to define the loss functions for PINN and VPINN so they converge to the correct solutions? How to select points or test functions for training of PINN and VPINN? We focus on the one-dimensional advection-dominated diffusion problem and the two-dimensional Eriksson-Johnson model problem. We show that the standard Galerkin method for FEM cannot solve this problem. We discuss the stabilization of the advection-dominated diffusion problem with the Petrov-Galerkin (PG) formulation and present the FEM solution obtained with the PG method. We employ PINN and VPINN methods, defining several strong and weak loss functions. We compare the training and solutions of PINN and VPINN methods with higher-order FEM methods.