Identification of parameters in polymer crystallization (Q1899303)

The authors investigate a specific integro-differential equation which models isothermal polymer crystallization. Using the Banach fixed point theorem and assuming local Lipschitz continuity, they prove existence and uniqueness. To determine 3 parameters in the equation, a modified Levenberg-Marquardt method is described for which approximations to the Jacobian are computed via the variational equation. The error of the numerical solution of this system is estimated. Finally, numerical results are reported concerning actual identification of two parameters (fixing the third one) to experimental data.