On the controllability of parabolic systems with a nonlinear term involving the state and the gradient

Abstract

We present some results concerning the controllability of a quasi-linear parabolic equation (with linear principal part) in a bounded domain of RN with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We analyze the controllability problem with distributed controls (supported on a small open subset) and boundary controls (supported on a small part of the boundary). We prove that the system is null and approximately controllable at any time if the nonlinear term f(y, ∇y) grows slower than |y| log3/2(1+ |y|+ |∇y|)+ |∇y| log1/2(1+ |y|+ |∇y|) at infinity (generally, in this case, in the absence of control, blow-up occurs). The proofs use global Carleman estimates, parabolic regularity, and the fixed point method.