Finite element error analysis for PDE-constrained optimal control problems

Subject of this work is the analysis of numerical methods for the solution of optimal control problems governed by elliptic partial differential equations. Such problems arise, if one does not only want to simulate technical or physical processes but also wants to optimize them with the help of one or more influence variables. In many practical applications these influence variables, so called controls, cannot be chosen arbitrarily, but have to fulfill certain inequality constraints. The numerical treatment of such control constrained optimal control problems requires a discretization of the underlying infinite dimensional function spaces. To guarantee the quality of the numerical solution one has to estimate and to quantify the resulting approximation errors. In this thesis a priori error estimates for finite element discretizations are proved in case of corners or edges in the underlying domain and nonsmooth coefficients in the partial differential equation. These facts influence the regularity properties of the solution and require adapted meshes to get optimal convergence rates. Isotropic and anisotropic refinement strategies are given and error estimates in polygonal and prismatic domains are proved. The theoretical results are confirmed by numerical tests.