Finite-Horizon Parameterizing Manifolds, and Applications to Suboptimal Control of Nonlinear Parabolic PDEs

Abstract: This article proposes a new approach based on finite-horizon parameterizing manifolds (PMs) for the design of low-dimensional suboptimal controllers to optimal control problems of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) of parabolic type. Given a finite horizon $[0,T]$ and a low-mode truncation of the PDE, a PM provides an approximate parameterization of the uncontrolled high modes by the controlled low ones so that the unexplained high-mode energy is reduced, in an $L^2$-sense, when this parameterization is applied. Analytic formulas of such PMs are derived by application of the method of pullback approximation of the high-modes (Chekroun, Liu, and Wang, 2013, http://arxiv.org/pdf/1310.3896v1.pdf). These formulas allow for an effective derivation of reduced ODE systems, aimed to model the evolution of the low-mode truncation of the controlled state variable, where the high-mode part is approximated by the PM function applied to the low modes. A priori error estimates between the resulting PM-based low-dimensional suboptimal controller $u_R^\ast$ and the optimal controller $u^*$ are derived. These estimates demonstrate that the closeness of $u_R^\ast$ to $u^*$ is mainly conditioned on two factors: (i) the parameterization defect of a given PM, associated respectively with $u_R^\ast$ and $u^*$; and (ii) the energy kept in the high modes of the PDE solution either driven by $u_R^\ast$ or $u^*$ itself. The practical performances of such PM-based suboptimal controllers are numerically assessed for various optimal control problems associated with a Burgers-type equation. The numerical results show that a PM-based reduced system allows for the design of suboptimal controllers with good performances provided that the associated parameterization defects and energy kept in the high modes are small enough, in agreement with the rigorous results.