A priori error analysis of mixed methods for nonlinear quadratic optimal control problems (Q2378867)

An a priori error analysis for the quadratic optimal control problems governed by nonlinear elliptic partial differential equations using mixed finite element methods is presented. The lowest order Raviart-Thomas mixed finite element spaces are used to approximate the state and the costate. The control is approximated by piecewise constant functions and a priori error estimates for the mixed finite element approximation of nonlinear optimal control problems are obtained. The validation of the proposed techniques is achieved by the demonstration of two numerical examples.