We introduce an algorithmic framework based on tensor networks for computing fluid flows around immersed objects in curvilinear coordinates. We show that the tensor network simulations can be carried out solely using highly compressed tensor representations of the flow fields and the differential operators and discuss the numerical implementation of the tensor operations required for computing fluid flows in detail. The applicability of our method is demonstrated by applying it to the paradigm example of steady and transient flows around stationary and rotating cylinders. We find excellent quantitative agreement in comparison to finite difference simulations for Strouhal numbers, forces and velocity fields. The properties of our approach are discussed in terms of reduced order models. We estimate the memory saving and potential runtime advantages in comparison to standard finite difference simulations. We find accurate results with errors of less than 0.3% for flow-field compressions by a factor of up to 20 and differential operators compressed by factors of up to 1000 compared to sparse matrix representations. We provide strong numerical evidence that the runtime scaling advantages of the tensor network approach with system size will provide substantial resource savings when simulating larger systems. Finally, we note that, like other tensor network-based fluid flow simulations, our algorithmic framework is directly portable to a quantum computer leading to further scaling advantages.
We introduce an algorithmic framework based on tensor networks for computing fluid flows around immersed objects in curvilinear coordinates. We show that the tensor network simulations can be carried out solely using highly compressed tensor representations of the flow fields and the differential operators and discuss the numerical implementation of the tensor operations required for computing fluid flows in detail. The applicability of our method is demonstrated by applying it to the paradigm example of steady and transient flows around stationary and rotating cylinders. We find excellent quantitative agreement in comparison to finite difference simulations for Strouhal numbers, forces and velocity fields. The properties of our approach are discussed in terms of reduced order models. We estimate the memory saving and potential runtime advantages in comparison to standard finite difference simulations. We find accurate results with errors of less than 0.3% for flow-field compressions by a factor of up to 20 and differential operators compressed by factors of up to 1000 compared to sparse matrix representations. We provide strong numerical evidence that the runtime scaling advantages of the tensor network approach with system size will provide substantial resource savings when simulating larger systems. Finally, we note that, like other tensor network-based fluid flow simulations, our algorithmic framework is directly portable to a quantum computer leading to further scaling advantages.
We introduce an algorithmic framework based on tensor networks for computing fluid flows around immersed objects in curvilinear coordinates. We show that the tensor network simulations can be carried out solely using highly compressed tensor representations of the flow fields and the differential operators and discuss the numerical implementation of the tensor operations required for computing fluid flows in detail. The applicability of our method is demonstrated by applying it to the paradigm example of steady and transient flows around stationary and rotating cylinders. We find excellent quantitative agreement in comparison to finite difference simulations for Strouhal numbers, forces and velocity fields. The properties of our approach are discussed in terms of reduced order models. We estimate the memory saving and potential runtime advantages in comparison to standard finite difference simulations. We find accurate results with errors of less than 0.3% for flow-field compressions by a factor of up to 20 and differential operators compressed by factors of up to 1000 compared to sparse matrix representations. We provide strong numerical evidence that the runtime scaling advantages of the tensor network approach with system size will provide substantial resource savings when simulating larger systems. Finally, we note that, like other tensor network-based fluid flow simulations, our algorithmic framework is directly portable to a quantum computer leading to further scaling advantages.
Nonlinear terms present a fundamental challenge for quantum computational fluid dynamics, as their implementation on inherently linear quantum hardware typically requires resource-intensive workarounds that limit scalability to large-scale simulations. We present a hybrid quantum-classical tensor network algorithm that addresses this bottleneck by combining variational time-stepping with quantum tensor programming to efficiently compile operators and time-dependent fields into quantum circuits. Within a probabilistic framework, we replace prior state-based nonlinear implementations with tensor-based block encodings, stabilizing success probabilities that otherwise decay exponentially with system size. Benchmarking on turbulent flow fields demonstrates that the algorithm maintains high success probabilities and moderate measurement overhead across increasing Reynolds numbers and grid resolutions. Compared to fully classical tensor network solvers, our hybrid approach yields substantial reductions in both memory footprint and computational cost, establishing a scalable pathway toward practical quantum advantage in scale-resolving CFD simulations.
Quantum-inspired algorithms are an emerging class of algorithms for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with potentially favourable scaling for large problems compared to classical methods. However, their applications have been limited to incompressible flows due to arithmetic limitations, which are addressed in this work. This work introduces the first true end-to-end quantum-inspired computational fluid dynamics (QICFD) solver for direct numerical simulation of the compressible Navier-Stokes equations, that is, all arithmetic operations, as well as initialisation and post-processing, are undertaken in the tensor train (TT) format. Importantly, new division and square-root algorithms using TTs enable the use of Sutherland's law for viscosity, and leverages recent improvements in TT arithmetic algorithms for reduced runtime and memory cost. The new QICFD solver is validated by comparison with the classical CFD solver HiPSTAR and by way of a challenging fluid-flow test case, the low resolution Taylor-Green Vortex (TGV) at Mach numbers of 0.8 and 0.1. The TGV test case is a transient turbulent case that is very sensitive to accumulating errors, yet our QICFD solver achieves excellent agreement with the classical CFD reference. This work demonstrates the correctness of the new TT division and square-root algorithms, and that QICFD is capable of compressible flow simulations. The new QICFD solver is also able to perform simultaneous simulations, running multiple TGV-like cases initialised differently in parallel with reduced extra cost. Finally, the demonstrated TGV test case reveals additional challenges of QICFD as well as highlight the need for future advances to make TT methods viable for industrially-relevant conditions.
Abstract Computational fluid dynamics is both a thriving research field and a key tool for advanced industry applications. However, the simulation of turbulent flows in complex geometries is a compute-power intensive task due to the vast vector dimensions required by discretized meshes. We present a complete and self-consistent full-stack method to solve incompressible fluids with memory and run time scaling logarithmically in the mesh size. Our framework is based on matrix-product states, a compressed representation of quantum states. It is complete in that it solves for flows around immersed objects of arbitrary geometries, with non-trivial boundary conditions, and self-consistent in that it can retrieve the solution directly from the compressed encoding, i.e. without passing through the expensive dense-vector representation. This framework lays the foundation for a generation of more efficient solvers of real-life fluid problems.
High performance computers produce extreme-scale data sets that require sampling or compression if they are to be used to their full potential. Existing data compression techniques typically exploit features such as sparsity in the data, homogeneity in the data, or {\it a priori} knowledge of what subsets of data are of most interest. Fluid dynamics data in general do not exhibit these features and so are attractive test beds for generic compression techniques that are objective, robust, and tuneable with respect to information lost due to compression. Presented here is a method based on tensor networks, specifically matrix product states or tensor trains, that meets these requirements. The method is demonstrated for compression in one-dimension and is extensible to higher dimensionality. Lossless compression is demonstrated for random Fourier series for sufficiently high bond dimension of the tensor network, with the memory required to store the tensor network scaling directly proportional to the bond dimension. The lossy compression exhibited at lower bond dimension can be well within the relative error of many fluid simulations. The compression algorithm is tested for the time evolution of Burger's equation with excellent results. We additionally demonstrate the capability to perform computations in the compressed form through a tensor network periodic convolution that can be orders of magnitude faster than using fast Fourier transforms and the convolution theorem. In addition to being an attractive method for working with data sets generated by existing computers, the tensor network methods utilised are directly translatable to the emerging paradigm of quantum computing.
Tensor network algorithms can efficiently simulate complex quantum many-body systems by utilizing knowledge of their structure and entanglement. These methodologies have been adapted recently for solving the Navier-Stokes equations, which describe a spectrum of fluid phenomena, from the aerodynamics of vehicles to weather patterns. Within this quantum-inspired paradigm, velocity is encoded as matrix product states (MPS), effectively harnessing the analogy between interscale correlations of fluid dynamics and entanglement in quantum many-body physics. This particular tensor structure is also called quantics tensor train (QTT). By utilizing NVIDIA's cuQuantum library to perform parallel tensor computations on GPUs, our adaptation speeds up simulations by up to 12.1 times. This allows us to study the algorithm in terms of its applicability, scalability, and performance. By simulating two qualitatively different but commonly encountered 2D flow problems at high Reynolds numbers up to 1 × 10 7 using a fourth-order time stepping scheme, we find that the algorithm has a potential advantage over direct numerical simulations in the turbulent regime as the requirements for grid resolution increase drastically. In addition, we derive the scaling χ = O ( poly ( 1 / ε ) ) for the maximum bond dimension χ of MPS representing turbulent flow fields, with an error ε , based on the spectral distribution of turbulent kinetic energy. Our findings motivate further exploration of related quantum algorithms and other tensor network methods.