VARIATIONAL-PRINCIPLES, DUALITY, LEGENDRE TRANSFORMATIONS AND MINE SHAFT VENTILATION

The calculation of flows in pipe networks and in networks of mine shafts and the calculations of the currents in electrical circuits can be represented as variational problems. There are two approaches: the nodal method and the loop method. There is a variational representation for each of these. This paper describes the relationship between the two representations and in particular shows that the loop formulation is the Wolfe dual of the nodal formulation after the application of Legendre transformations to the variables and to the objective function.