Distributed optimal control of the viscous Burgers equation via a Legendre pseudo-spectral approach

This paper presents a computational technique based on the pseudo-spectral method for the solution of distributed optimal control problem for the viscous Burgers equation. By using pseudo-spectral method, the problem is converted to a classical optimal control problem governed by a system of ordinary differential equations, which can be solved by well-developed direct or indirect methods. For solving the resulting optimal control problem, we present an indirect method by deriving and numerically solving the first-order optimality conditions. Numerical tests involving both unconstrained and constrained control problems are considered. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.