1,361 research outputs found

    Exponential stability of a class of boundary control systems

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    We study a class of partial differential equations (with variable coefficients) on a one dimensional spatial domain with control and observation at the boundary. For this class of systems we provide simple tools to check exponential stability. This class is general enough to include models of flexible structures, traveling waves, heat exchangers, and bioreactors among others. The result is based on the use of a generating function (the energy for physical systems) and an inequality condition at the boundary. Furthermore, based on the port Hamiltonian approach, we give a constructive method to reduce this inequality to a simple matrix inequality

    Effects of fluctuating daily surface fluxes on the time-mean oceanic circulation

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    The effect of fluctuating daily surface fluxes on the time-mean oceanic circulation is studied using an empirical flux model. The model produces fluctuating fluxes resulting from atmospheric variability and includes oceanic feedbacks on the fluxes. Numerical experiments were carried out by driving an ocean general circulation model with three different versions of the empirical model. It is found that fluctuating daily fluxes lead to an increase in the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) of the Atlantic of about 1 Sv and a decrease in the Antarctic circumpolar current (ACC) of about 32 Sv. The changes are approximately 7% of the MOC and 16% of the ACC obtained without fluctuating daily fluxes. The fluctuating fluxes change the intensity and the depth of vertical mixing. This, in turn, changes the density field and thus the circulation. Fluctuating buoyancy fluxes change the vertical mixing in a non-linear way: they tend to increase the convective mixing in mostly stable regions and to decrease the convective mixing in mostly unstable regions. The ACC changes are related to the enhanced mixing in the subtropical and the mid-latitude Southern Ocean and reduced mixing in the high-latitude Southern Ocean. The enhanced mixing is related to an increase in the frequency and the depth of convective events. As these events bring more dense water downward, the mixing changes lead to a reduction in meridional gradient of the depth-integrated density in the Southern Ocean and hence the strength of the ACC. The MOC changes are related to more subtle density changes. It is found that the vertical mixing in a latitudinal strip in the northern North Atlantic is more strongly enhanced due to fluctuating fluxes than the mixing in a latitudinal strip in the South Atlantic. This leads to an increase in the density difference between the two strips, which can be responsible for the increase in the Atlantic MOC

    The DICER Model: Methodological Issues and Initial Results

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    This paper introduces DICER, a model for the integrated assessment of climate – economy interactions within an optimal growth framework developed based on the structure of the DICE2007 model. We present the methodological differences introduced so far in DICER and some preliminary results of its deterministic version. We observe interesting results in comparison to other IAMs, such as (i) lower peak temperatures; (ii) radiative forcing differences; (iii) differences in control rates; and (iv) sensitivity of results to parameters such as climate sensitivity. A further innovation of this work has been to account for uncertainty and risk through an application of option pricing. The method allows for a simple representation of the risks through measures of volatility in the damages and abatement costs and shows that taking these factors into account lowers maximum mean temperatures by about 0.5oC. We also present some methodological issues that need to be dealt with in the near future in DICER.Climate change, Integrated Impact Assessment Model (IAM), damage function

    Bifurcation in the growth of continental crust

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    Is the present-day water-land ratio a necessary outcome of the evolution of plate tectonic planets with a similar age, volume, mass, and total water inventory as the Earth? This would be the case - largely independent of initial conditions - if Earth's present-day continental volume were at a stable unique equilibrium with strong self-regulating mechanisms of continental growth steering the evolution to this state. In this paper, we question this conjecture. Instead we suggest that positive feedbacks in the plate tectonics model of continental production and erosion may dominate and show that such a model can explain the history of continental growth. We investigate the main mechanisms that contribute to the growth of the volume of the continental crust. In particular, we analyze the effect of the oceanic plate speed, depending on the area and thickness of thermally insulating continents, on production and erosion mechanisms. Effects that cause larger continental production rates for larger values of continental volume are positive feedbacks. In contrast, negative feedbacks act to stabilize the continental volume. They are provided by the increase of the rate of surface erosion, subduction erosion, and crustal delamination with the continental volume. We systematically analyze the strengths of positive and negative feedback contributions to the growth of the continental crust. Although the strengths of some feedbacks depend on poorly known parameters, we conclude that a net predominance of positive feedbacks is plausible. We explore the effect of the combined feedback strength on the feasibility of modeling the observed small positive net continental growth rate over the past 2-3 billion years

    CONTROL OF SYSTEMS ON SPATIAL DOMAINS WITH MOVING BOUNDARIES: 3D PRINTING AND TRAFFIC

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    Until roughly the year 2000, control algorithms (of the kind that can be physically implemented and provided guarantees of stability and performance) were mostly available only for systems modeled by ordinary differential equations. In other words, while controllers were available for finite-dimensional systems, such as robotic manipulators of vehicles, they were not available for systems like fluid flows. With the emergence of the “backstepping” approach, it became possible to design control laws for systems modeled by partial differential equations (PDEs), i.e., for infinite dimensional systems, and with inputs at the boundaries of spatial domains. But, until recently, such backstepping controllers for PDEs were available only for systems evolving on fixed spatial PDE domains, not for systems whose boundaries are also dynamical and move, such as in systems undergoing transition of phase of matter (like the solid-liquid transition, i.e., melting or crystallization). In this invited article we review new control designs for moving-boundary PDEs of both parabolic and hyperbolic types and illustrate them by applications, respectively, in additive manufacturing (3D printing) and freeway traffic
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