Existence of an optimal domain for the buckling load of a clamped plate with prescribed volume (Q2159757)

The present work discusses the minimization of the buckling load of a clamped plate as a free boundary value problem. In part, the paper provides refinements of the prior work [\textit{K. Stollenwerk}, Calc. Var. Partial Differ. Equ. 55, No. 1, Paper No. 5, 29 p. (2016; Zbl 1335.49072)]. The main result is the existence of a bounded domain that minimizes the buckling load (Theorem 1). The proof is based on a penalized variational problem formulation following ideas presented in [\textit{H. W. Alt} and \textit{L. A. Caffarelli}, J. Reine Angew. Math. 325, 105--1044 (1981; Zbl 0449.35105)]. For the considered penalty functional, it is shown that for each penalty parameter there exists a minimizer in \(H^{2,2}\). It is found that the considered regularity requirements for the minimizer prohibit a further analysis of the regularity properties of the free boundary. To address this, a second penalization term is considered. This reformulation is motivated by the work in [\textit{N. Aguilera} et al, SIAM J. Control Optim. 24(2), 191--198 (1986; Zbl 0588.49005)]. The proof considered for the first penalty term does no longer apply for the reformulation since the second penalization term antagonizes the monotonicity of the buckling load with respect to set inclusion. As a remedy, an inequality by [\textit{M. S. Ashbaugh} et al., Ann. Sc. Norm. Super. Pisa, Cl. Sci., IV. Ser. 23, No. 2, 383--402 (1996; Zbl 0891.73028)] is considered that allows for balancing the rewarding penalization term and the monotonicity of the buckling load.