Application of the Poor Man’s Navier–Stokes Equations to Real-Time Control of Fluid Flow
Control of fluid flow is an important, and quite underutilized process possessing significant potential benefits ranging from avoidance of separation and stall on aircraft wings and reduction of friction factors in oil and gas pipelines to mitigation of noise from wind turbines. But the Navier–Stokes (N.–S.) equations governing fluid flow consist of a system of time-dependent, multi-dimensional, non-linear partial differential equations (PDEs) which cannot be solved in real time using current, or near-term foreseeable, computing hardware. The poor man’s Navier–Stokes (PMNS) equations comprise a discrete dynamical system that is algebraic—hence, easily (and rapidly) solved—and yet which retains many (possibly all) of the temporal behaviors of the full (PDE) N.–S. system at specific spatial locations. In this paper we outline derivation of these equations and present a short discussion of their basic properties. We then consider application of these equations to the problem of control by adding a control force. We examine the range of PMNS equation behaviors that can be achieved by changing values of this control force, and, in particular, consider controllability of this (non-linear) system via numerical experiments. Moreover, we observe that the derivation leading to the PMNS equations is very general, and, at least in principle, it can be applied to a wide variety of problems governed by PDEs and (possibly) time-delay ordinary differential equations such as, for example, models of machining processes.