A smooth penalty approach and a nonlinear multigrid algorithm for elliptic MPECs

An optimal control problem governed by an elliptic variational inequality of the first kind and bilateral control constraints is studied. A smooth penalization technique for the variational inequality is applied and convergence of stationary points of the subproblems to an E‐almost C‐stationary point of the limit problem is shown. The subproblems are solved using a full approximation multigrid scheme (FAS) and alternatively a multigrid method of the second kind for which a convergence result is given. An overall algorithmic concept is provided and its performance is discussed by means of examples.