Error estimates for variational normal derivatives and Dirichlet control problems with energy regularization (Q2291726)

The author considers the following optimal control problem (OCP) \[ \min_{z\in H^{1/2}(\Gamma)}\left (\frac{1}{2}||u(z)-u_d||^2_{L^2(\Omega)}+\frac{\nu}{2}|z|^2_{H^{1/2}\Gamma)}\right)\tag{1} \] subject to the Dirichlet boundary value problem \[ -\Delta u=f \text{ in }\Omega\in\mathbb{R}^2,\quad u=z\text{ on }\Gamma, \] where \(u_d\in L^2(\Omega)\) is the desired state for the solution \(u\in H^1(\Omega)\), \(f \in L^2(\Omega)\) is the source term, and \(z\) is the control. The second term in the minimization problem (1) has a regularization effect and influences the order of the discretization error. The polygonal domain \(\Omega\) is assumed to have reentrant corners, where unexpected behavior of the control may occur near the corners. Instead of \(L^2(\Gamma)\) regularization, a stronger norm \(H^{1/2}(\Gamma)\) in (1) is used to mitigate the effect of the singularities. The purpose of the paper is to derive sharp convergence rates depending on the opening angle \(\omega\) at the corners. \[ | z|^2_{H^{1/2}(\Gamma)}=\int_\Gamma\partial _nu(z)dz=||\nabla u(z)||^2_{L^2(\Omega)} \] The finite element solutions \(u_h\) satisfy the estimate \[ ||\partial u-\partial_n^h||_{H^{-1/2}(\Gamma)}\leq ch^{\min[3/2,\pi/\omega_{\max}-\epsilon0]}. \] The optimal control problem (1) is solved by approximating state, adjoint state, and control by linear finite elements. Sharp error bounds are derived depending on the opening maximum angles \(\omega_{\max}\) at the corners \[ || z - z_h||_{H^{1/2}(\Gamma)} \le ch^{\min[3/2,\pi/\omega_{\max} -\epsilon]},\tag{2} \] where the constant \(\epsilon > 0\) is independent of the mesh size \(h\), \(z\) and \(z_h\) are continuous and discrete controls. Numerical approximation of the optimal control problem \[ J(u,z) = \frac{1}{2} || u-u_d ||_{L_2(\Omega)}^2 + \frac{\nu}{2}(Nz,z) \rightarrow \min\tag{3} \] subject to the Dirichlet boundary control (2) \[ -\Delta u = f \text{ in }\Omega, \quad u=z\text{ on }\Gamma \] is considered in Section 4 of the paper. The Steklov-Poicaré operator \(N: H^{1/2}(\Gamma) \rightarrow H^{-1/2}(\Gamma)\) is considered as a realization of the \(H^{1/2}(\Gamma)\). The state, adjoint state and control are discretized by linear finite elements. Error estimates are derived for the OCP (3) with Dirichlet boundary control in \(L_2(\Omega)\), \(H^1(\Omega)\) norm and for the discrete normal derivatives in \(H^{1/2}(\Gamma)\) norm. Numerical results confirm the predicted error estimates. The maximum convergence rate \(3/2\) is obtained on a unit square. Convergence rates (2) are obtained unless all opening angles of corners are less than \(2\pi/3\). The worst-case convergence rate of \(1\) is achieved unless the domain remains convex. When the largest angle tends to \(2\pi\), the convergence rate will tend to \(1/2\).