An Application of Data Driven Reward of Deep Reinforcement Learning by Dynamic Mode Decomposition in Active Flow Control

This paper focuses on the active flow control (AFC) of the flow over a circular cylinder with synthetic jets through deep reinforcement learning (DRL) by implementing a reward function based on dynamic mode decomposition (DMD). As a main factor that affects the DRL model, the reward is determined by the information extracted from flow field by performing DMD on measurements through simulation. With the data-driven reward, the DRL model is able to learn the AFC policy through the more global information of the field, and instructs the mass flow rate of the synthetic jets. As a result of this type of AFC, the vortex street is stabilized with a reduction of approximately 8% in drag and an improvement of approximately 109% in recirculation area. Furthermore, the configuration of the flow modified by the AFC is studied with DMD on the velocity measurement of the complete flow field.