Despite having roots in the aerospace sector, Digital Twin is slowly disrupting other fields including hydrodynamics. However, the spatiotemporal domain inherent to activities such as storm surge and flood forecasting will tax traditional Digital Twin technologies which typically accommodate smaller scale time-invariant domains.
In this talk, we will consider technologies purpose-built for a hydrodynamics-centric Digital Twin to enable rapid and efficient forecasting. First, we will investigate Hurricane Ian (2022) to explore a pathway to reduce uncertainty in hurricane-induced surge forecasts. Specifically, we will force a high-fidelity storm surge and flood forecasting framework with an ensemble meteorological product to produce highly localized probabilistic storm surge guidance. Thereafter, we will use machine learning to correct this framework. In particular, we will explore the utility of transformer models, which are typically used in natural language processing, to improve the framework’s finite element driver, ADCIRC.
Al Cerrone received his BSCE from Notre Dame (2009) and his Ph.D. from Cornell University (2014) where he studied computational fracture mechanics. He worked at General Electric Research for four years where he investigated the durability of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) and developed new technologies for Digital Twin including cumulative damage models in support of GE Aviation’s aircraft engines. Since joining Notre Dame in 2018, he has conducted research in the general area of Digital Twin. On the mechanics side, he has tested and modeled the deformation of inorganic materials systems including additively manufactured metals and organic systems like P. aeruginosa biofilms and SARS-CoV-2. More recently, on the hydrodynamics side, he has been working with various tropical cyclones and global and regional meteorological products to improve coastal water level forecasting. You can find Al in Dr. Joannes Westerink’s lab where he brainstorms with and liberally steals great ideas from both Joannes and Dr. Damrongsak Wirasaet.