Optimal control of the layer size in the problem of equilibrium of elastic bodies with overlapping domains

Abstract

We consider the problem of equilibrium of a two-layer elastic body. The first of the layers contains a crack,while the second is a circle centered at one of the crack tips. The round layer is glued by its boundary to the first layer. The unique solvability is proved for this problem in the nonlinear formulation. An optimal control problem is also considered. The radius a of the second layer is chosen as a varying parameter under assumption that a takes positive values from a closed interval. It is shown that there are a value of a minimizing the functional that characterizes how potential energy depends on the crack length and a value of a minimizing the functional that characterizes the opening of the crack.