Open Access

Michael Hintermüller, Michael Hinze, Hicham M. Tber

• An adaptive finite element semi-smooth Newton solver for the Cahn-Hilliard model with double obstacle free energy is proposed. For this purpose, the governing system is discretised in time using a semi-implicit scheme, and the resulting time-discrete system is formulated as an optimal control problem with pointwise constraints on the control. For the numerical solution of the optimal control problem, we propose a function space based algorithm which combines a Moreau-Yosida regularization technique for handling the control constraints with a semi-smooth-Newton method for solving the optimality systems of the resulting sub-problems. Further, for the discretization in space and in connection with the proposed algorithm, an adaptive finite element method is considered. The performance of the overall algorithm is illustrated by numerical experiments.