Residual Attention Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Robust Multiphysics Simulation of Steady-State Electrothermal Energy Systems

arXiv cs.LG / 3/26/2026

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Key Points

  • The paper introduces a Residual Attention Physics-Informed Neural Network (RA-PINN) to jointly solve coupled electrothermal steady-state multiphysics fields (velocity, pressure, electric potential, and temperature).
  • It addresses key simulation challenges—strong nonlinear field coupling, temperature-dependent coefficient variability, and complex interface dynamics—by combining a unified five-field operator formulation with residual connections and attention-guided channel modulation.
  • Across four electrothermal benchmark scenarios, RA-PINN outperforms baseline neural-PINN variants (e.g., Pure-MLP, LSTM-PINN, pLSTM-PINN) with the lowest error metrics (MSE, RMSE, relative L2).
  • The method shows improved structural fidelity specifically in interface-dominated and variable-coefficient regimes where conventional PINN backbones tend to degrade.

Abstract

Efficient thermal management and precise field prediction are critical for the design of advanced energy systems, including electrohydrodynamic transport, microfluidic energy harvesters, and electrically driven thermal regulators. However, the steady-state simulation of these electrothermal coupled multiphysics systems remains challenging for physics-informed neural computation due to strong nonlinear field coupling, temperature-dependent coefficient variability, and complex interface dynamics. This study proposes a Residual Attention Physics-Informed Neural Network (RA-PINN) framework for the unified solution of coupled velocity, pressure, electric-potential, and temperature fields. By integrating a unified five-field operator formulation with residual-connected feature propagation and attention-guided channel modulation, the proposed architecture effectively captures localized coupling structures and steep gradients. We evaluate RA-PINN across four representative energy-relevant benchmarks: constant-coefficient coupling, indirect pressure-gauge constraints, temperature-dependent transport, and oblique-interface consistency. Comparative analysis against Pure-MLP, LSTM-PINN, and pLSTM-PINN demonstrates that RA-PINN achieves superior accuracy, yielding the lowest MSE, RMSE, and relative L_2 errors across all scenarios. Notably, RA-PINN maintains high structural fidelity in interface-dominated and variable-coefficient settings where conventional PINN backbones often fail. These results establish RA-PINN as a robust and accurate computational framework for the high-fidelity modeling and optimization of complex electrothermal multiphysics in sustainable energy applications.