TY - JOUR A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan A1 - Schmitt, Johann Michael A1 - Schäfer Aguilar, Paloma A1 - Moos, Michael T1 - On the numerical discretization of optimal control problems for conservation laws N2 - We analyze the convergence of discretization schemes for the adjoint equation arising in the adjoint-based derivative computation for optimal control problems governed by entropy solutions of conservation laws. The difficulties arise from the fact that the correct adjoint state is the reversible solution of a transport equation with discontinuous coefficient and discontinuous end data. We derive the discrete adjoint scheme for monotone difference schemes in conservation form. It is known that convergence of the discrete adjoint can only be expected if the numerical scheme has viscosity of order O(h^\alpha) with appropriate 0 < \alpha < 1, which leads to quite viscous shock profiles. We show that by a slight modification of the end data of the discrete adjoint scheme convergence to the correct reversible solution can be obtained also for numerical schemes with viscosity of order O(h) and with sharp shock resolution. The theoretical findings are confirmed by numerical results. Y1 - 2019 ER - TY - INPR A1 - Schmitt, Johann Michael A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Optimal Boundary Control of Hyperbolic Balance Laws with State Constraints N2 - In this paper we analyze the optimal control of initial-boundary value problems for entropy solutions of scalar hyperbolic balance laws with pointwise state constraints. Hereby, we suppose that the initial and the boundary data switch between different C¹-functions at certain switching points, where the C¹ -functions and the switching points are considered as the control. For a class of cost functionals, we prove first order necessary optimality conditions for the corresponding optimal control problem with state constraints. Furthermore, we use a Moreau-Yosida type regularization to approximate the optimal control problem with state constraints. We derive optimality conditions for the regularized problems and finally prove convergence to the solution of the optimal control problem with state constraints. Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Börner, Pascal A1 - Pfetsch, Marc E. A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Modeling and optimization of gas mixtures on networks N2 - This paper presents a model for the mixture of gases on networks in the stationary case. The model is based on an equation of state for the mixture, the stationary isothermal Euler equations and coupling conditions for the flow and mixture. The equation of state or pressure law is based on the change of the speed of sound in a mixture of gases. We use this model to solve stationary gas flow problems to global optimality on large networks and present computational results. Y1 - 2024 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hajian, Soheil A1 - Hintermüller, Michael A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Total variation diminishing schemes in optimal control of scalar conservation laws JF - IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis N2 - In this paper, optimal control problems subject to a nonlinear scalar conservation law are studied. Such optimal control problems are challenging both at the continuous and at the discrete level since the control-to-state operator poses difficulties as it is, e.g., not differentiable. Therefore discretization of the underlying optimal control problem should be designed with care. Here the discretize-then-optimize approach is employed where first the full discretization of the objective function as well as the underlying PDE is considered. Then, the derivative of the reduced objective is obtained by using an adjoint calculus. In this paper total variation diminishing Runge-Kutta (TVD-RK) methods for the time discretization of such problems are studied. TVD-RK methods, also called strong stability preserving (SSP), are originally designed to preserve total variation of the discrete solution. It is proven in this paper that providing an SSP state scheme, is enough to ensure stability of the discrete adjoint. However requiring SSP for both discrete state and adjoint is too strong. Also approximation properties that the discrete adjoint inherits from the discretization of the state equation are studied. Moreover order conditions are derived. In addition, optimal choices with respect to CFL constant are discussed and numerical experiments are presented. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.20347/WIAS.PREPRINT.2383 VL - 39 SP - 105 EP - 140 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gugat, Martin A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - On Lipschitz Solutions of Initial Boundary Value Problems for Balance Laws JF - Mathematical Models and Methods in Applied Sciences N2 - The flow of gas through networks of pipes can be modeled by the isothermal Euler equations and algebraic node conditions that model the flow through the vertices of the network graph. We prove the well-posedness of the system for gas with nonconstant compressibility factor that is given by an affine linear function. We consider initial data and control functions that are Lipschitz continuous and compatible with the node and boundary conditions. We show the existence of semi--global Lipschitz continuous solutions of the initial boundary value problem. The construction of the solution is based upon a fixed point iteration along the characteristic curves. The solutions of the intial boundary value problem on arbitrary networks satisfy a maximum principle in terms of the Riemann invariants that states that the maximum of the absolute values is attained for the initial or the boundary data. Y1 - 2017 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Habeck, Oliver A1 - Pfetsch, Marc E. A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Global optimization of mixed-integer ODE constrained network problems using the example of stationary gas transport N2 - In this paper we propose a new approach for finding global solutions of mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problems with ordinary differential equation constraints on networks. Instead of using a first discretize then optimize approach, we combine spatial and variable branching with appropriate discretizations of the differential equations to derive relaxations of the original problem. To construct the relaxations we derive convex under- and concave over-estimators for the ODE solution operators using numerical discretization schemes. Thereby, we make use of the underlying network structure, where the solutions of the ODEs only need to be known at a finite number of points. This property enables us to adaptively refine the discretization and relaxation without introducing new variables. The incorporation into a spatial branch-and-bound process allows to compute global epsilon-optimal solutions or decide infeasibility. We prove that this algorithm terminates finitely under some natural assumptions. We then show how this approach works for the example of stationary gas transport and provide some illustrative computational examples. KW - Global Optimization KW - Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Optimization Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1137/17M1152668 VL - 29 IS - 4 SP - 2949 EP - 2985 ET - SIAM Journal of Optimization ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gugat, Martin A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan ED - CHEN, GOONG T1 - The isothermal Euler equations for ideal gas with source term: Product solutions, flow reversal and no blow up JF - Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications KW - Global classical solutions Ideal gas Bi-directional flow Transsonic flow Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmaa.2017.04.064 VL - 454 IS - 1 SP - 439 EP - 452 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfaff, Sebastian A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Optimal Boundary Control of Nonlinear Hyperbolic Conservation Laws with Switched Boundary Data JF - SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization N2 - We consider the optimal control of initial-boundary value problems for entropy solutions of scalar hyperbolic conservation laws. In particular, we consider initial-boundary value problems where the initial and boundary data switch between different C¹-functions at certain switching points and both the functions and the switching points are controlled. We show that the control-to-state mapping is differentiable in a certain generalized sense, which implies Fréchet-differentiability with respect to the control functions and the switching points for the composition with a tracking type functional, even in the presence of shocks. We also present an adjoint-based formula for the gradient of the reduced objective functional. KW - optimal control, scalar conservation law, differentiability, adjoint state, shock sensitivity Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1137/140995799 VL - 53 IS - 3 SP - 1250 EP - 1277 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pfaff, Sebastian A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Optimal Control of Nonlinear Hyperbolic Conservation Laws by On/Off-Switching JF - Optimization Methods and Software N2 - This paper studies the differentiability properties of the control-to-state mapping for entropy solutions to a scalar hyperbolic conservation law on R with respect to the switching times of an on/off-control. The switching times between on-modes and off-modes are the control variables of the considered optimization problem, where a general tracking-type functional is minimized.We investigate the differentiability of the reduced objective function, also in the presence of shocks. We show that the state y(t,·) at some observation time t depends differentiably on the switching times in a generalized sense that implies total differentiability for the composition with a tracking functional. Furthermore, we present an adjoint-based formula for the gradient of the reduced objective functional with respect to the switching times. KW - optimal control, scalar conservation law, network Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/10556788.2016.1236796 VL - 32 SP - 904 EP - 939 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan A1 - Christian, Kirches A1 - Manns, Paul T1 - Compactness and convergence rates in the combinatorial integral approximation decomposition N2 - The combinatorial integral approximation decomposition splits the optimization of a discrete-valued control into two steps: solving a continuous relaxation of the discrete control problem, and computing a discrete-valued approximation of the relaxed control. Different algorithms exist for the second step to construct piecewise constant discrete-valued approximants that are defined on given decompositions of the domain. It is known that the resulting discrete controls can be constructed such that they converge to a relaxed control in the weak^* topology of L^\infty if the grid constant of this decomposition is driven to zero. We exploit this insight to formulate a general approximation result for optimization problems, which feature discrete and distributed optimization variables, and which are governed by a compact control-to-state operator. We analyze the topology induced by the grid refinements and prove convergence rates of the control vectors for two problem classes. We use a reconstruction problem from signal processing to demonstrate both the applicability of the method outside the scope of differential equations, the predominant case in the literature, and the effectiveness of the approach. Y1 - 2020 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan A1 - Manns, Paul T1 - a simplified newton method to generate snapshots for POD models of semilinear optimal controlproblems N2 - n PDE-constrained optimization, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) provides a surrogate model of a (potentially expensive) PDE discretization, on which optimization iterations are executed. Because POD models usually provide good approximation quality only locally, they have to be updated during optimization. Updating the POD model is usually expensive, however,and therefore often impossible in a model-predictive control (MPC) context. Thus, reduced models of mediocre quality might be accepted. We take the view of a simplified Newton method for solving semilinear evolution equations to derive an algorithm that can serve as an offline phase to produce a POD model. Approaches that build the POD model with impulse response snapshots can be regarded as the first Newton step in this context.In particular, POD models that are based on impulse response snapshots are extended by adding a second simplified Newton step. This procedure improves the approximation quality of the POD model significantly by introducing a moderate amount of extra computational costs during optimization or the MPC loop. We illustrate our findings with an example satisfying our assumptions. Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - INPR A1 - Schäfer Aguilar, Paloma A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Convergence of numerical adjoint schemes arising from optimal boundary control problems of hyperbolic conservation laws N2 - We study the convergence of discretization schemes for the adjoint equation arising in the adjoint-based derivative computation for optimal boundary control problems governed by entropy solutions of conservation laws. As boundary control we consider piecewise continuously differentiable controls with possible discontinuities at switching times, where the smooth parts as well as the switching times serve as controls. The derivative of tracking-type objective functionals with respect to the smooth controls and the switching times can then be represented by an adjoint-based formula. The main difficulties arise from the fact that the correct adjoint state is the reversible solution of a transport equation with discontinuous coefficient and boundary conditions that lead in general to discontinuous adjoints. Moreover, the solution of the adjoint equation is non-unique and the so-called reversible solution leads to the correct adjoint-based derivative representation. We study discrete adjoint schemes of monotone difference schemes in conservation form such as Engquist-Osher or Lax-Friedrichs scheme. We also allow that the state is computed by another numerical scheme satisfying certain convergence properties. We proof convergence results of the discrete adjoint to the reversible solution. Y1 - 2021 ER - TY - INPR A1 - Breitkopf, Jannik A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - A Variational Calculus for Optimal Control of the Generalized Riemann Problem for Hyperbolic Systems of Conservation Laws N2 - We develop a variational calculus for entropy solutions of the Generalized Riemann Problem (GRP) for strictly hyperbolic systems of conservation laws where the control is the initial state. The GRP has a discontinuous initial state with exactly one discontinuity and continuously differentiable (C^1) states left and right of it. The control consists of the C^1 parts of the initial state and the position of the discontinuity. Solutions of the problem are generally discontinuous since they contain shock curves. We assume the time horizon T>0 to be sufficiently small such that no shocks interact and no new shocks are generated. Moreover, we assume that no rarefaction waves occur and that the jump of the initial state is sufficiently small. Since the shock positions depend on the control, a transformation to a reference space is used to fix the shock positions. In the reference space, we prove that the solution of the GRP between the shocks is continuously differentiable from the control space to C^0. In physical coordinates, this implies that the shock curves in C^1 and the states between the shocks in the topology of C^0 depend continuously differentiable on the control. As a consequence, we obtain the differentiability of tracking type objective functionals. KW - hyperbolic systems of conservation laws, shock curves, generalized riemann problem, optimal control, variational calculus Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - INPR A1 - Breitkopf, Jannik A1 - Gugat, Martin A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Existence and Optimal Boundary Control of Classical Solutions to Networks of Quasilinear Hyperbolic Systems of Balance Laws N2 - We study the existence, stability and optimal control of classical solutions of networked strictly hyperbolic systems of balance laws. Such networks arise, for instance, in the modeling of the gas dynamics in a network of gas pipelines, traffic networks, or networks of water channels. It is assumed that characteristic speeds are nonzero and do not change sign. Node conditions are stated in a general way by requiring that the boundary traces of all states adjacent to a vertex satisfy an algebraic equation. With a suitable assumption, this equation can be solved for outgoing characteristic variables as a function of the incoming ones. We prove the unique existence of a classical solution for arbitrarily large initial and boundary values on a possibly small time horizon. We derive continuity and differentiability properties of the solution operator of the quasilinear problem w.r.t. the control term located in the node conditions. Then we analyze an optimal control problem for the networked system, where the control is of boundary type. We prove the existence of optimal controls and the differentiability of the objective functional w.r.t. the controls. KW - networked systems, classical solutions, quasilinear hyperbolic systems, boundary control, conservation laws, nodal control, optimal nodal control Y1 - 2025 ER - TY - JFULL A1 - Börner, Pascal A1 - Pfetsch, Marc E. A1 - Ulbrich, Stefan T1 - Mixing of Gases in Stationary Networks: Properties and Optimization N2 - This paper deals with the mixing of gases in stationary networks. We first derive a model and pressure law for mixing, for which there is empirical evidence for its accuracy. The model is based on the change of the speed of sound in gas mixtures. We then consider stationary gas networks. The existence result for solutions of single gas flow on networks is extended to mixtures. Further, we establish an easy to check criterion for uniqueness of solutions on the network. This results in a uniqueness proof of solutions on all networks with a mixture of natural gas and low hydrogen percentages. We then develop a solution algorithm that alternates between the solution of a single gas problem and update of the mixture ratios. In a computational study, different model variants and their impact on performance are compared. Moreover, the increased complexity of solving stationary gas transport problems with mixing is evaluated. KW - gas network optimization KW - gas mixing KW - MINLP KW - global optimization Y1 - ER -