A Characteristic Finite Element Method for Constrained Convection-Diffusion-Reaction Optimal Control Problems

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a priori error estimates for the solution of constrained convection-diffusion-reaction optimal control problems using a characteristic finite element method. The cost functional of the optimal control problems consists of three parts: The first part is about integration of the state over the whole time interval, the second part refers to final-time state, and the third part is a regularization term about the control. We discretize the state and co-state by piecewise linear continuous functions, while the control is approximated by piecewise constant functions. Pointwise inequality function constraints on the control are considered, and optimal a  $L^2$-norm priori error estimates are obtained. Finally, we give two numerical examples to validate the theoretical analysis.