Boundary controllability of phase-transition region of a two-phase Stefan problem

Viorel Barbu

Published 2020-08-26Version 1

One proves that the moving interface of a two-phase Stefan problem on $\ooo\subset\rr^d$, $d=1,2,3,$ is controllable at the end time $T$ by a Neumann boundary controller $u$. The phase-transition region is a mushy region $\{\sigma^u_t;\ 0\le t\le T\}$ of a modified Stefan problem and the main result amounts to saying that, for each Lebesque measurable set $\ooo^*$ with positive measure, there is $u\in L^2((0,T)\times\pp\ooo)$ such that $\ooo^*\subset\sigma^u_T.$ To this aim, one uses an optimal control approach combined with Carleman's inequality and the Kakutani fixed point theorem.