Optimal control of shallow water flow using time-delay function

This paper presents an optimal control system that includes a time-delay function for application to flood control setups with a retardation area. This system consists of the present and past controls that express flow behaviour in the retardation area. Optimal control theory is used to obtain a control discharge that satisfies the state equation including the time-delay function and minimizes the performance function. The optimal control and the delayed control discharges are obtained by the solution of an adjoint equation. The weighted gradient method is employed as a minimization algorithm. The Galerkin finite element procedure is employed to discretize the state and adjoint equations in the spatial direction. The bubble function interpolation, originated by the authors' group, using a stabilized term, is employed for the discretization in space. The flood flow in the Tsurumi river is presented as a numerical model. We show in this paper that floods can be controlled by means of a time-delay function.