This paper revisits a new model reduction methodology based on the use of separated representations, the so called Proper Generalized Decomposition—PGD. Space and time separated representations generalize Proper Orthogonal Decompositions—POD—avoiding any a priori knowledge on the solution in contrast to the vast majority of POD based model reduction technologies as well as reduced bases approaches. Moreover, PGD allows to treat efficiently models defined in degenerated domains as well as the multidimensional models arising from multidimensional physics (quantum chemistry, kinetic theory descriptions,…) or from the standard ones when some sources of variability are introduced in the model as extra-coordinates.

This paper revisits a powerful discretization technique, the Proper Generalized Decomposition—PGD, illustrating its ability for solving highly multidimensional models. This technique operates by constructing a separated representation of the solution, such that the solution complexity scales linearly with the dimension of the space in which the model is defined, instead the exponentially-growing complexity characteristic of mesh based discretization strategies. The PGD makes possible the efficient solution of models defined in multidimensional spaces, as the ones encountered in quantum chemistry, kinetic theory description of complex fluids, genetics (chemical master equation), financial mathematics, … but also those, classically defined in the standard space and time, to which we can add new extra-coordinates (parametric models, …) opening numerous possibilities (optimization, inverse identification, real time simulations, …).

In this paper we are addressing a new paradigm in the field of simulation-based engineering sciences (SBES) to face the challenges posed by current ICT technologies. Despite the impressive progress attained by simulation capabilities and techniques, some challenging problems remain today intractable. These problems, that are common to many branches of science and engineering, are of different nature. Among them, we can cite those related to high-dimensional problems, which do not admit mesh-based approaches due to the exponential increase of degrees of freedom. We developed in recent years a novel technique, called Proper Generalized Decomposition (PGD). It is based on the assumption of a separated form of the unknown field and it has demonstrated its capabilities in dealing with high-dimensional problems overcoming the strong limitations of classical approaches. But the main opportunity given by this technique is that it allows for a completely new approach for classic problems, not necessarily high dimensional. Many challenging problems can be efficiently cast into a multidimensional framework and this opens new possibilities to solve old and new problems with strategies not envisioned until now. For instance, parameters in a model can be set as additional extra-coordinates of the model. In a PGD framework, the resulting model is solved once for life, in order to obtain a general solution that includes all the solutions for every possible value of the parameters, that is, a sort of computational vademecum. Under this rationale, optimization of complex problems, uncertainty quantification, simulation-based control and real-time simulation are now at hand, even in highly complex scenarios, by combining an off-line stage in which the general PGD solution, the vademecum, is computed, and an on-line phase in which, even on deployed, handheld, platforms such as smartphones or tablets, real-time response is obtained as a result of our queries.

The use of constitutive equations calibrated from data has been implemented into standard numerical solvers for successfully addressing a variety problems encountered in simulation-based engineering sciences (SBES). However, the complexity remains constantly increasing due to the need of increasingly detailed models as well as the use of engineered materials. Data-Driven simulation constitutes a potential change of paradigm in SBES. Standard simulation in computational mechanics is based on the use of two very different types of equations. The first one, of axiomatic character, is related to balance laws (momentum, mass, energy,\(\ldots \)), whereas the second one consists of models that scientists have extracted from collected, either natural or synthetic, data. Data-driven (or data-intensive) simulation consists of directly linking experimental data to computers in order to perform numerical simulations. These simulations will employ laws, universally recognized as epistemic, while minimizing the need of explicit, often phenomenological, models. The main drawback of such an approach is the large amount of required data, some of them inaccessible from the nowadays testing facilities. Such difficulty can be circumvented in many cases, and in any case alleviated, by considering complex tests, collecting as many data as possible and then using a data-driven inverse approach in order to generate the whole constitutive manifold from few complex experimental tests, as discussed in the present work.