Diagnostics for Eddy Viscosity Models of Turbulence Including Data-Driven/Neural Network Based Parameterizations

Abstract: Classical eddy viscosity models add a viscosity term with turbulent viscosity coefficient whose specification varies from model to model. Turbulent viscosity coefficient approximations of unknown accuracy are typically constructed by solving associated systems of nonlinear evolution equations or by data driven approaches such as deep neural networks. Often eddy viscosity models over-diffuse, so additional fixes are added. This process increases model complexity and decreases model comprehensibility, leading to the following two questions: Is an eddy viscosity model needed? Does the eddy viscosity model fail? This report derives a posteriori computable conditions that answer these two questions.