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Now showing 1 - 10 of 78
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    Longtime behavior for a generalized Cahn-Hilliard system with fractional operators
    (Messina : Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti, 2020) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    In this contribution, we deal with the longtime behavior of the solutions to the fractional variant of the Cahn-Hilliard system, with possibly singular potentials, that we have recently investigated in the paper Well-posedness and regularity for a generalized fractional Cahn-Hilliard system. More precisely, we study the ω-limit of the phase parameter y and characterize it completely. Our characterization depends on the first eigenvalues λ1≥0 of one of the operators involved: if λ1>0, then the chemical potential μ vanishes at infinity and every element yω of the ω-limit is a stationary solution to the phase equation; if instead λ1=0, then every element yω of the ω-limit satisfies a problem containing a real function μ∞ related to the chemical potential μ. Such a function μ∞ is nonunique and time dependent, in general, as we show by an example. However, we give sufficient conditions for μ∞ to be uniquely determined and constant.
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    A boundary control problem for the pure Cahn–Hilliard equation with dynamic boundary conditions
    (Berlin ; Boston, Mass. : de Gruyter, 2015) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    A boundary control problem for the pure Cahn–Hilliard equations with possibly singular potentialsand dynamic boundary conditions is studied and rst-order necessary conditions for optimality are proved.
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    Distributed optimal control of a nonstandard nonlocal phase field system
    (Springfield, MO : AIMS Press, 2016) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    We investigate a distributed optimal control problem for a nonlocal phase field model of viscous Cahn-Hilliard type. The model constitutes a nonlocal version of a model for two-species phase segregation on an atomic lattice under the presence of diffusion that has been studied in a series of papers by P. Podio-Guidugli and the present authors. The model consists of a highly nonlinear parabolic equation coupled to an ordinary differential equation. The latter equation contains both nonlocal and singular terms that render the analysis difficult. Standard arguments of optimal control theory do not apply directly, although the control constraints and the cost functional are of standard type. We show that the problem admits a solution, and we derive the first-order necessary conditions of optimality.
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    Optimal Control Problems with Sparsity for Tumor Growth Models Involving Variational Inequalities
    (Dordrecht [u.a.] : Springer Science + Business Media, 2022) Colli, Pierluigi; Signori, Andrea; Sprekels, Jürgen
    This paper treats a distributed optimal control problem for a tumor growth model of Cahn–Hilliard type. The evolution of the tumor fraction is governed by a variational inequality corresponding to a double obstacle nonlinearity occurring in the associated potential. In addition, the control and state variables are nonlinearly coupled and, furthermore, the cost functional contains a nondifferentiable term like the L1-norm in order to include sparsity effects which is of utmost relevance, especially time sparsity, in the context of cancer therapies as applying a control to the system reflects in exposing the patient to an intensive medical treatment. To cope with the difficulties originating from the variational inequality in the state system, we employ the so-called deep quench approximation in which the convex part of the double obstacle potential is approximated by logarithmic functions. For such functions, first-order necessary conditions of optimality can be established by invoking recent results. We use these results to derive corresponding optimality conditions also for the double obstacle case, by deducing a variational inequality in terms of the associated adjoint state variables. The resulting variational inequality can be exploited to also obtain sparsity results for the optimal controls.
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    An asymptotic analysis for a generalized Cahn–Hilliard system with fractional operators
    (Basel : Springer, 2021) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    In the recent paper “Well-posedness and regularity for a generalized fractional Cahn–Hilliard system” (Colli et al. in Atti Accad Naz Lincei Rend Lincei Mat Appl 30:437–478, 2019), the same authors have studied viscous and nonviscous Cahn–Hilliard systems of two operator equations in which nonlinearities of double-well type, like regular or logarithmic potentials, as well as nonsmooth potentials with indicator functions, were admitted. The operators appearing in the system equations are fractional powers A2r and B2σ (in the spectral sense) of general linear operators A and B, which are densely defined, unbounded, selfadjoint, and monotone in the Hilbert space L2(Ω), for some bounded and smooth domain Ω⊂R3, and have compact resolvents. Existence, uniqueness, and regularity results have been proved in the quoted paper. Here, in the case of the viscous system, we analyze the asymptotic behavior of the solution as the parameter σ appearing in the operator B2σ decreasingly tends to zero. We prove convergence to a phase relaxation problem at the limit, and we also investigate this limiting problem, in which an additional term containing the projection of the phase variable on the kernel of B appears.
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    A distributed control problem for a fractional tumor growth model
    (Basel : MDPI, 2019) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    In this paper, we study the distributed optimal control of a system of three evolutionary equations involving fractional powers of three self-adjoint, monotone, unbounded linear operators having compact resolvents. The system is a generalization of a Cahn-Hilliard type phase field system modeling tumor growth that has been proposed by Hawkins-Daarud, van der Zee and Oden. The aim of the control process, which could be realized by either administering a drug or monitoring the nutrition, is to keep the tumor cell fraction under control while avoiding possible harm for the patient. In contrast to previous studies, in which the occurring unbounded operators governing the diffusional regimes were all given by the Laplacian with zero Neumann boundary conditions, the operators may in our case be different; more generally, we consider systems with fractional powers of the type that were studied in a recent work by the present authors. In our analysis, we show the Fréchet differentiability of the associated control-to-state operator, establish the existence of solutions to the associated adjoint system, and derive the first-order necessary conditions of optimality for a cost functional of tracking type. © 2019 by the authors.
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    Second-order analysis of an optimal control problem in a phase field tumor growth model with singular potentials and chemotaxis
    (Les Ulis : EDP Sciences, 2021) Colli, Pierluigi; Signori, Andrea; Sprekels, Jürgen
    This paper concerns a distributed optimal control problem for a tumor growth model of Cahn–Hilliard type including chemotaxis with possibly singular potentials, where the control and state variables are nonlinearly coupled. First, we discuss the weak well-posedness of the system under very general assumptions for the potentials, which may be singular and nonsmooth. Then, we establish the strong well-posedness of the system in a reduced setting, which however admits the logarithmic potential: this analysis will lay the foundation for the study of the corresponding optimal control problem. Concerning the optimization problem, we address the existence of minimizers and establish both first-order necessary and second-order sufficient conditions for optimality. The mathematically challenging second-order analysis is completely performed here, after showing that the solution mapping is twice continuously differentiable between suitable Banach spaces via the implicit function theorem. Then, we completely identify the second-order Fréchet derivative of the control-to-state operator and carry out a thorough and detailed investigation about the related properties.
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    Strong solutions to nonlocal 2D Cahn-Hilliard-Navier-Stokes systems with nonconstant viscosity, degenerate mobility and singular potential
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2016) Frigeri, Sergio; Gal, Ciprian G.; Grasselli, Maurizio; Sprekels, Jürgen
    We consider a nonlinear system which consists of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations coupled with a convective nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation. This is a diffuse interface model which describes the motion of an incompressible isothermal mixture of two (partially) immiscible fluids having the same density. We suppose that the viscosity depends smoothly on the order parameter as well as the mobility. Moreover, we assume that the mobility is degenerate at the pure phases and that the potential is singular (e.g. of logarithmic type). This system is endowed with no-slip boundary condition for the (average) velocity and homogeneous Neumann boundary condition for the chemical potential. Thus the total mass is conserved. In the two-dimensional case, this problem was already analyzed in some joint papers of the first three authors. However, in the present general case, only the existence of a global weak solution, the (conditional) weak-strong uniqueness and the existence of the global attractor were proven. Here we are able to establish the existence of a (unique) strong solution through an approximation procedure based on time discretization. As a consequence, we can prove suitable uniform estimates which allow us to show some smoothness of the global attractor. Finally, we discuss the existence of strong solutions for the convective nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard equation, with a given velocity field, in the three dimensional case as well.
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    On an application of Tikhonovs fixed point theorem to a nonlocal Cahn-Hilliard type system modeling phase separation
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2015) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    This paper investigates a nonlocal version of a model for phase separation on an atomic lattice that was introduced by P. Podio-Guidugli in Ric. Mat. 55 (2006) 105-118. The model consists of an initial-boundary value problem for a nonlinearly coupled system of two partial differential equations governing the evolution of an order parameter p and the chemical potential my. Singular contributions to the local free energy in the form of logarithmic or ouble-obstacle potentials are admitted. In contrast to the local model, which was studied by P. Podio-Guidugli and the present authors in a series of recent publications, in the nonlocal case the equation governing the evolution of the order parameter contains in place of the Laplacian a nonlocal expression that originates from nonlocal contributions to the free energy and accounts for possible long-range interactions between the atoms. It is shown that just as in the local case the model equations are well posed, where the technique of proving existence is entirely different: it is based on an application of Tikhonovs fixed point theorem in a rather unusual separable and reflexive Banach space.
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    Optimal velocity control of a convective Cahn-Hilliard system with double obstacles and dynamic boundary conditions: A deep quench approach
    (Berlin : Weierstraß-Institut für Angewandte Analysis und Stochastik, 2017) Colli, Pierluigi; Gilardi, Gianni; Sprekels, Jürgen
    In this paper, we investigate a distributed optimal control problem for a convective viscous CahnHilliard system with dynamic boundary conditions. Such systems govern phase separation processes between two phases taking place in an incompressible fluid in a container and, at the same time, on the container boundary. The cost functional is of standard tracking type, while the control is exerted by the velocity of the fluid in the bulk. In this way, the coupling between the state (given by the associated order parameter and chemical potential) and control variables in the governing system of nonlinear partial differential equations is bilinear, which presents a difficulty for the analysis. In contrast to the previous paper Optimal velocity control of a viscous CahnHilliard system with convection and dynamic boundary conditions by the same authors, the bulk and surface free energies are of double obstacle type, which renders the state constraint nondifferentiable. It is well known that for such cases standard constraint qualifications are not satisfied so that standard methods do not apply to yield the existence of Lagrange multipliers. In this paper, we overcome this difficulty by taking advantage of results established in the quoted paper for logarithmic nonlinearities, using a so-called deep quench approximation. We derive results concerning the existence of optimal controls and the first-order necessary optimality conditions in terms of a variational inequality and the associated adjoint system.