The nonlinear optimization problem in heat conduction (Q2388367)

A body \(D\) in a domain \(\Omega\) with a given temperature \(\varphi\) on its surface \(\partial D\) and zero on \(\partial\Omega\) is considered and the domain \(\Omega\) itself is to be optimized to minimize the functional \(\int_{\partial D}\Gamma(x,u_\mu(x))d\sigma\), where \(u_\mu\) seems to be a normal flux of the solution \(u\) to the heat equation \(\Delta u=0\) on the isolating layer \(\Omega\setminus D\) whose volume is prescribed (equal to 1). This equality constraint is then penalized by a suitable nonsmooth penalty function as if it were only a unilateral constraint. For this, \(\Gamma(x,\cdot)\) is assumed convex, increasing, and coercive. This penalization is proved to be exact if the penalty parameter is small enough, and a lot of fine regularity properties of the solutions to the penalized (and thus also the original) problems is proved, in particular analyticity of the free boundary \(\partial\Omega\).