Optimal Control of Thermoblasticity

Elastoplastic deformations play a tremendous role in industrial forming. Many of these processes happen at non-isothermal conditions. Therefore, the optimization of such problems is of interest not only mathematically but also for applications. In this talk we will present the analysis of the existence of a global solution of an optimal control problem governed by a thermovisco(elasto)plastic model. We will point out the difficulties arising from the nonlinear coupling of the heat equation with the mechanical part of the model. Finally, we will discuss first numerical results. The talk is based on joint work with Roland Herzog and Christian Meyer.