Local controllability of the Cahn-Hilliard-Burgers' equation around certain steady states

Abstract

In this article we study the local controllability of the one-dimensional Cahn-Hilliard-Navier-Stokes equation, that is Cahn-Hilliard-Burgers' equation, around a certain steady state using a localized interior control acting only in the concentration equation. To do it, we first linearize the nonlinear equation around the steady state. The linearized system turns out to be a system coupled between second order and fourth order parabolic equations and the control acts in the fourth order parabolic equation. The null controllability of the linearized system is obtained by a duality argument proving an observability inequality. To prove the observability inequality, a new Carleman inequality for the coupled system is derived. Next, using the source term method, it is shown that the null controllability of the linearized system with non-homogeneous terms persists provided the non-homogeneous terms satisfy certain estimates in a suitable weighted space. Finally, using a Banach fixed point theorem in a suitable weighted space, the local controllability of the nonlinear system is obtained.