https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2014-02274-y
Regular Article
Supply networks: Instabilities without overload
1 Network Dynamics, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI DS), 37077 Göttingen, Germany
2 Faculty of Physics, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
3 Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, 39106 Magdeburg, Germany
Received: 19 March 2014
Revised: 30 July 2014
Published online: 26 September 2014
Supply and transport networks support much of our technical infrastructure as well as many biological processes. Their reliable function is thus essential for all aspects of life. Transport processes involving quantities beyond the pure loads exhibit alternative collective dynamical options compared to processes exclusively characterized by loads. Here we analyze the stability and bifurcations in oscillator models describing electric power grids and demonstrate that these networks exhibit instabilities without overloads. This phenomenon may well emerge also in other sufficiently complex supply or transport networks, including biological transport processes.
Current address: Forschungszentrum Jülich, Institute for Energy and Climate Research (IEK-STE), 52425 Jülich, Germany; e-mail: witthaut@nld.ds.mpg.de
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2014
