Abstract
We propose and analyze the symmetric interior penalty Galerkin (SIPG) finite element method for studying Dirichlet boundary optimal control problem governed by the biharmonic operator. The symmetric property of the mesh dependent bilinear form is a crucial ingredient to derive the discrete optimality system. We perform a priori as well as a posteriori error analysis of the underlying finite element method on any general convex polygonal domain. Under appropriate regularity assumptions, optimal order error bounds are achieved in the energy norm for the control, state and adjoint state. We also derive the error estimate for the control in \(L_2\) norm. Moreover, we have derived residual based reliable and efficient a posteriori error estimator for the development of an efficient adaptive algorithm. When the first penalty parameter tends to infinity, the complete fourth order SIPG finite element method reduces to the classic \(C^0\)-interior penalty method. The corresponding error estimates (both a priori and a posteriori) are obtained for \(C^0\)-interior penalty method. Numerical results demonstrate the execution of the method and compliments the theoretical findings.




Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availibility
There is no associated data with this manuscript.
References
Blum, H., Rannacher, R.: On the boundary value problem of the biharmonic operator on domains with angular corners. Math. Methods Appl. Sci. 2, 556–581 (1980)
Brezzi, F., Fortin, M.: Mixed and Hybrid Finite Element Methods. In: Blowey, J., Craig, A., Shardlow, T. (eds.) Springer Series in Computational Mathematics (Berlin). Springer, New York (1991)
Brenner, S.C., Wang, K., Zhao, J.: Poincaré-Friedrichs inequalities for piecewise \(H^2\) functions. Numer. Funct. Anal. Optim. 25, 463–478 (2004)
Brenner, S.C., Sung, L.Y.: \(C^0\) interior penalty methods for fourth order elliptic boundary value problems on polygonal domains. J. Sci. Comput. 22, 83–118 (2005)
Brenner, S.C., Scott, L.R.: The Mathematical Theory of Finite Element Methods \((\)Third Edition\()\). Springer, New York (2008)
Brenner, S.C., Gudi, T., Sung, L.Y.: An a posteriori error estimator for a quadratic \(C^0\) interior penalty method for the biharmonic problem. IMA J. Numer. Anal. 30, 777–798 (2010)
Brenner, S.C.: \(C^0\) interior penalty methods. In: Blowey, J., Craig, A., Shardlow, T. (eds.) Frontiers in Numerical Analysis-Durham, vol. 2011, pp. 79–147. Springer, Berlin (2010)
Brenner, S.C., Gu, S., Gudi, T., Sung, L.Y.: A quadratic \(C^0\) interior penalty method for linear fourth order boundary value problems with boundary conditions of the Cahn-Hilliard type. SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 50, 2088–2110 (2012)
Carstensen, C., Mallik, G., Nataraj, N.: A priori and a posteriori error control of discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods for the von Karmán equations. IMA J. Numer. Anal. 39, 167–200 (2019)
Casas, E., Dhamo, V.: Error estimates for the numerical approximation of Neumann control problems governed by a class of quasilinear elliptic equations. Comput. Optim. Appl. 52, 719–756 (2012)
Casas, E., Mateos, M.: Error estimates for the numerical approximation of Neumann control problems. Comput. Optim. Appl. 39, 265–295 (2008)
Casas, E., Raymond, J.P.: Error estimates for the numerical approximation of Dirichlet boundary control for semi linear elliptic equations. SIAM J. Control. Optim. 45, 1586–1611 (2006)
Chowdhury, S., Gudi, T., Nandakumaran, A.K.: A frame work for the error analysis of discontinuous finite element methods for elliptic optimal control problems and applications to C0IP methods. Numer. Funct. Anal. Optim. 36, 1388–1419 (2015)
Chowdhury, S., Gudi, T., Nandakumaran, A.K.: Error bounds for a Dirichlet boundary control problem based on energy spaces. Math. Comp. 86, 1103–1126 (2017)
Chowdhury, S., Gudi, T.: A \(C^0\) interior penalty method for the Dirichlet control problem governed by biharmonic operator. J. Comput. Appl. Math. 317, 290–306 (2017)
Chowdhury, S., Garg, D., Shokeen, R.: Modified \(C^0\) interior penalty analysis for fourth order Dirichlet boundary control problem and a posteriori error estimate. Math. Comput. Simul. 219, 185–211 (2024)
Ciarlet, P.G.: The Finite Element Method for Elliptic Problems. North-Holland, Amsterdam (1978)
Cui, J., Zhang, Y.: A new analysis of discontinuous Galerkin methods for a fourth order variational inequality. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg. 351, 531–547 (2019)
Dauge, M.: Elliptic Boundary Value Problems on Corner Domains. Lecture Notes in Mathematics, vol. 1341. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg (1988)
Dond, A.K., Gudi, T., Sau, R.C.: An error analysis of discontinuous finite element methods for the optimal control problems governed by stokes equation. Numer. Func. Anal. Optim. 40, 421–460 (2019)
Dörlfer, W.: A convergent adaptive algorithm for Poisson’s equation. SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 33, 1106–1124 (1996)
Du, S., He, X.: Finite element approximation to optimal Dirichlet boundary control problem: A priori and a posteriori error estimates. Comput. Math. Appl. 131, 14–25 (2023)
Falk, R.S.: Approximation of a class of optimal control problems with order of convergence estimates. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 44, 28–47 (1973)
Feng, X., Karakashian, O.: Fully discrete dynamic mesh discontinuous Galerkin methods for the Cahn-Hilliard equation of phase transition. Math. Comp. 76, 1093–1117 (2007)
Frei, S., Rannacher, R., Wollner, W.: A priori error estimates for the finite element discretization of optimal distributed control problems governed by the biharmonic operator. Calcolo 50, 165–193 (2013)
Garg, D., Porwal, K.: Adaptive finite element methods for a fourth order obstacle problem and a state constrained optimal control problem. Math. Comput. Simul. 207, 1–23 (2023)
Garg, D., Porwal, K.: Unified discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods for second order Dirichlet boundary control problem. Appl. Numer. Math. 185, 336–364 (2023)
Garg, D., Porwal, K.: Mixed finite element method for the second order Dirichlet boundary control problem. Comput. Math. Appl. 135, 31–59 (2023)
Georgoulis, E.H., Houston, P.: Discontinuous Galerkin methods for biharmonic problems. IMA J. Numer. Anal. 29, 573–594 (2009)
Georgoulis, E.H., Houston, P., Virtanen, J.: An a posteriori error indicator for discontinuous Galerkin approximations of fourth order elliptic problems. IMA J. Numer. Anal. 31, 281–298 (2011)
Geveci, T.: On the approximation of the solution of an optimal control problem governed by an elliptic equation (English, with French summary). RAIRO Anal. Numer. 13, 313–328 (1979)
Grisvard, P.: Elliptic Problems in Nonsmooth Domains. Pitman, Boston (1985)
Gudi, T., Nataraj, N., Porwal, K.: An interior penalty method for distributed optimal control problems governed by the biharmonic operator. Comput. Math. Appl. 68, 2205–2221 (2014)
Gudi, T., Sau, R.C.: Finite element analysis of a constrained Dirichlet boundary control problem governed by the diffusion problem. ESIAM Conrol. Optim. Calc. Var. 26, 78 (2020)
Gudi, T., Mallik, G., Sau, R.C.: Finite element analysis of a constrained Dirichlet boundary control problem governed by a linear parabolic equation. SIAM J. Control. Optim. 60, 3262–3288 (2022)
Gudi, T., Sau, R.C.: A two level finite element method for Stokes constrained Dirichlet boundary control problem. Comput. Math. Appl. 129, 126–135 (2023)
Günther, A., Hinze, M.: Elliptic control problems with gradient contraints, variational discrete versus piecewise constant controls. Comput. Optim. Appl. 49, 549–566 (2011)
Kanshat, G., Sharma, N.: Divergence-conforming Galerkin methods and \(C^0\) interior penalty method. SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 52, 1822–1842 (2014)
Kozlov, V.A., Mazya, V.G., Rossmann, J.: Elliptic Boundary Value Problems in Domains with Point Singularities. AMS, Providence, Renton (1997)
May, S., Rannacher, R., Vexler, B.: Error analysis for a finite element approximation of elliptic Dirichlet boundary control problems. SIAM J. Control. Optim. 51, 2585–2611 (2013)
Mozoevski, I., Süli, E.: hp version interior penalty DGFEMs for the biharmonic Equation. Technical Report 04/05. Oxford University Computing Laboratory, Oxford (2004)
Mozoevski, I., Süli, E.: A priori error analysis for the \(hp\)-version of the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for the biharmonic equation. Comput. Methods Appl. Math. 3, 596–607 (2003)
Mozoevski, I., Süli, E., Bösing, P.: \(hp\)-version a priori error analysis of interior penalty discontinuous Galerkin finite element approximations to the biharmonic equation. J. Sci. Comput. 30, 465–491 (2007)
Meyer, C., Rösch, A.: Superconvergence properties of optimal control problems. SIAM J. Control. Optim. 48, 970–985 (2004)
Nazarov, S.A., Plamenevsky, B.A.: Elliptic Problems in Domains with Piecewise Smooth Boundaries. de Gruyter, Berlin, New York (1994)
Of, G., Phan, T.X., Steinbach, O.: An energy space finite element approach for elliptic Dirichlet boundary control problems. Numer. Math. 129, 723–748 (2015)
Scott, L.R., Zhang, S.: Finite element interpolation of nonsmooth functions satisfying boundary conditions. Math. Comp. 54, 483–493 (1990)
Süli, E., Mozolevski, I.: \(hp\)-version interior penalty DGFEMs for the biharmonic equation. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 196, 1851–1863 (2007)
Troltzsch, F.: Optimale steuerung partieller differentialgleichungen. Vieweg, Cambridge University Press (2005)
Funding
Divay Garg’s work is supported by CSIR Research Fellowship. Kamana Porwal’s work is supported by DST Inspire Faculty Research Grant.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have not disclosed any competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Divay Garg’s work is supported by CSIR Research Fellowship.
Kamana Porwal’s work is supported by DST Inspire Faculty Research Grant.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Garg, D., Porwal, K. Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Dirichlet Boundary Control Problem Governed by Biharmonic Operator. J Sci Comput 103, 23 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10915-025-02841-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10915-025-02841-0
Keywords
- Dirichlet boundary control problem
- Optimal control problem
- Finite element method
- A priori error analysis
- A posteriori error analysis
- Discontinuous Galerkin method