Explicit energy storage fields and their application to structural property inspection of physical systems

Bond graph models provide very useful insights into the structure of dynamic systems. One major advantage of using these models is the clear representation of constraints and independent state variables. However, certain over-constrained structures are not dealt with adequately with this approach. Such a situation arises when several energy storage elements of the same type are directly coupled by a junction structure. In these models, although the representations are legitimate in terms of physical meaning, the resultant excess states cause pitfalls in the inspection of system properties. This paper proposes the use of explicit fields to eliminate such ambiguities. It was found that the excess states caused by the topological structures can be totally eliminated by explicit fields. The excess states caused by the imposed sources then can be identified properly. Several applications are presented to illustrate the use of explicit fields.