In this thesis we study structure-preserving model reduction methods for the efficient and reliable approximation of dynamical systems. A major focus is the approximation of a nonlinear flow problem on networks, which can, e.g., be used to describe gas network systems. Our proposed approximation framework guarantees so-called port-Hamiltonian structure and is general enough to be realizable by projection-based model order reduction combined with complexity reduction. We divide the discussion of the flow problem into two parts, one concerned with the linear damped wave equation and the other one with the general nonlinear flow problem on networks. The study around the linear damped wave equation relies on a Galerkin framework, which allows for convenient network generalizations. Notable contributions of this part are the profound analysis of the algebraic setting after space-discretization in relation to the infinite dimensional setting and its implications for model reduction. In particular, this includes the discussion of differential-algebraic structures associated to the network-character of our problem and the derivation of compatibility conditions related to fundamental physical properties. Amongst the different model reduction techniques, we consider the moment matching method to be a particularly well-suited choice in our framework. The Galerkin framework is then appropriately extended to our general nonlinear flow problem. Crucial supplementary concepts are required for the analysis, such as the partial Legendre transform and a more careful discussion of the underlying energy-based modeling. The preservation of the port-Hamiltonian structure after the model-order- and complexity-reduction-step represents a major focus of this work. Similar as in the analysis of the model order reduction, compatibility conditions play a crucial role in the analysis of our complexity reduction, which relies on a quadrature-type ansatz. Furthermore, energy-stable time-discretization schemes are derived for our port-Hamiltonian approximations, as structure-preserving methods from literature are not applicable due to our rather unconventional parametrization of the solution. Apart from the port-Hamiltonian approximation of the flow problem, another topic of this thesis is the derivation of a new extension of moment matching methods from linear systems to quadratic-bilinear systems. Most system-theoretic reduction methods for nonlinear systems rely on multivariate frequency representations. Our approach instead uses univariate frequency representations tailored towards user-defined families of inputs. Then moment matching corresponds to a one-dimensional interpolation problem rather than to a multi-dimensional interpolation as for the multivariate approaches, i.e., it involves fewer interpolation frequencies to be chosen. The notion of signal-generator-driven systems, variational expansions of the resulting autonomous systems as well as the derivation of convenient tensor-structured approximation conditions are the main ingredients of this part. Notably, our approach allows for the incorporation of general input relations in the state equations, not only affine-linear ones as in existing system-theoretic methods.

Hybrid Modelling in general, describes the combination of at least two different methods to solve one specific task. As far as this work is concerned, Hybrid Models describe an approach to combine sophisticated, well-studied mathematical methods with Deep Neural Networks to solve parameter estimation tasks. To combine these two methods, the data structure of artifi- cially generated acceleration data of an approximate vehicle model, the Quarter-Car-Model, is exploited. Acceleration of individual components within a coupled dynamical system, can be described as a second order ordinary differential equation, including velocity and dis- placement of coupled states, scaled by spring - and damping-coefficient of the system. An appropriate numerical integration scheme can then be used to simulate discrete acceleration profiles of the Quarter-Car-Model with a random variation of the parameters of the system. Given explicit knowledge about the data structure, one can then investigate under which con- ditions it is possible to estimate the parameters of the dynamical system for a set of randomly generated data samples. We test, if Neural Networks are capable to solve parameter estima- tion problems in general, or if they can be used to solve several sub-tasks, which support a state-of-the-art parameter estimation method. Hybrid Models are presented for parameter estimation under uncertainties, including for instance measurement noise or incompleteness of measurements, which combine knowledge about the data structure and several Neural Networks for robust parameter estimation within a dynamical system.