A Convex Optimization Approach to Compute Trapping Regions for Lossless Quadratic Systems

ABSTRACT Quadratic systems with lossless quadratic terms arise in many applications, including models of atmosphere and incompressible fluid flows. Such systems have a trapping region if all trajectories eventually converge to and stay within a bounded set. Conditions for the existence and characterization of trapping regions have been established in prior work for boundedness analysis. However, prior solutions have used non‐convex optimization methods, resulting in conservative estimates. In this paper, we build on this prior work and provide a convex semidefinite programming condition for the existence of a trapping region. The condition allows for precise verification or falsification of the existence of a trapping region. If a trapping region exists, then we provide a second semidefinite program to compute the least conservative radius of the spherical trapping region. Two low‐dimensional systems are provided as examples to illustrate the results. A third high‐dimensional example is also included to demonstrate that the computation required for the analysis can be scaled to systems of up to states. The proposed method provides a precise and computationally efficient numerical approach for computing trapping regions. We anticipate this work will benefit future studies on modeling and control of lossless quadratic dynamical systems.