A problem of optimal control of loading points and their reaction functions for a parabolic equation (Q6570649)

The authors study the optimal control problem for loading points and the reaction forces in the role of control variables. The parabolic state problem has the form\N\begin{align*}\N&\frac{\partial u}{\partial t}=Lu+\sum_{s=1}^n q_s(t)N(\xi_s(t))u(x,t)+F(x,t),\ x\in (0,\ell),\ t\in (t_0,t_f);\\\N&u(x,t_o)=\varphi_0(x),\ x\in (0,\ell);\ u(0,t)=\chi_1(t),\ \frac {\partial u(\ell,t)}{\partial x}=\chi_2(t),\ t\in (t_0,t_f)\N\end{align*}\Nwith a second-order elliptic operator \(L\) and optimized functions \(\{q_s(t)\}\) determining the reactions at loading points \(\{\xi_s(t)\}\) described by the initial value problem \N\[\N\frac {d\xi_s}{dt}=f_s(\xi_s(t),\vartheta_s(t),t),\ t\in (t_0,t_f],\ \xi_s(t_0)=\xi_s^0\in (0,\ell),\ s=1,2,\dots,n. \N\]\NFunctions \(\{\vartheta_s\}\) represent control actions on the movement of the loading points satisfying \(0<a_s\le \xi_s(t)<b_s\le \ell,\ t\in (t_0,t_f],\ s=1,2,\dots,n.\)\N\NThe optimality conditions are derived and numerical experiments based on first-order optimization methods are performed.