Boundary stabilization of flows in networks of open channels modeled by Saint-Venant equations

TL;DR

This paper develops a novel Lyapunov-based boundary control method to stabilize flows in complex open channel networks modeled by Saint-Venant equations with friction, ensuring optimal control placement and explicit parameter ranges.

Contribution

It introduces a new explicit Lyapunov function for Saint-Venant equations with source terms, enabling boundary stabilization of complex networks with minimal controls.

Findings

Successful stabilization of star and tree-shaped networks using terminal controls.

Explicit control parameter ranges depending only on steady-state values.

Improved stability conditions compared to previous single-channel models.

Abstract

This work investigates the boundary stabilization of flows in star-shaped and tree-shaped networks of open channels governed by the Saint-Venant equations with a friction term. Due to the existence of the friction term, the steady-states are non-uniform. We show that any such network can be stabilized with only controls at the terminal nodes of the network, even when there are no controls at the nodes inside the network. The number of control is optimal. The main tool we use is the Lyapunov approach, and the main challenge is that the state-of-the-art Lyapunov functions developed for Saint-Venant equations with source terms cannot be used. In this work, we manage to construct a new efficient and explicit Lyapunov function and, in turn, we give explicit ranges of the control tuning parameters that depend only on the values of the given non-uniform steady-states at the ends of the branches. Moreover, this Lyapunov function also improves the existing conditions found in the last decade for a single channel modelled by Saint-Venant equations.