On an optimal control problem with gradient constraints

Usually, control functions in control-constrained optimal control are chosen from a Lebesgue space. This choice, however, makes it impossible to postulate additional conditions on the control function's slope which is practically relevant in some situations. In order to overcome this disadvantage, a natural assumption would be to demand at least first-order Sobolev regularity for control functions. The present paper is devoted to the study of an elliptic optimal control problem whose control function is chosen from a Sobolev space and has to satisfy additional equality constraints on its weak gradient. Noting that the associated Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions do not provide a necessary optimality condition for the underlying optimal control problem in general, one cannot simply solve the problem of interest by considering the system of first-order optimality conditions. Instead a penalization procedure with strong convergence properties for the computational solution is suggested and its computational impl...