Multigrid One-Shot Method for PDE-Constrained Optimization Problems

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical method for PDE-constrained optimization problems. These problems arise in many fields of science and engineering including those dealing with real applications. The physical problem is modeled by partial differential equations (PDEs) and involve optimization of some quantity. The PDEs are in most cases nonlinear and solved using numerical methods. Since such numerical solutions are being used routinely, the recent trend has been to develop numerical methods and algorithms so that the optimization problems can be solved numerically as well using the same PDE-solver. We present here one such numerical method which is based on simultaneous pseudo-time stepping. The efficiency of the method is increased with the help of a multigrid strategy. Application example is included for an aerodynamic shape optimization problem.