Balanced Model Reduction via the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition

Abstract

A new method for performing a balanced reduction of a high-order linear system is presented. The technique combines the proper orthogonal decomposition and concepts from balanced realization theory. The method of snapshotsisused to obtainlow-rank,reduced-rangeapproximationsto thesystemcontrollability and observability grammiansineitherthetimeorfrequencydomain.Theapproximationsarethenusedtoobtainabalancedreducedorder model. The method is particularly effective when a small number of outputs is of interest. It is demonstrated for a linearized high-order system that models unsteady motion of a two-dimensional airfoil. Computation of the exact grammians would be impractical for such a large system. For this problem, very accurate reducedorder models are obtained that capture the required dynamics with just three states. The new models exhibit far superiorperformancethanthosederived using a conventionalproperorthogonal decomposition. Although further development is necessary, the concept also extends to nonlinear systems.