Thomas Götz, Shyam Perera

• An optimal control problem for a mathematical model of a melt spinning process is considered. Newtonian and non--Newtonian models are used to describe the rheology of the polymeric material, the fiber is made of. The extrusion velocity of the polymer at the spinneret as well as the velocity and temperature of the quench air serve as control variables. A constrained optimization problem is derived and the first--order optimality system is set up to obtain the adjoint equations. Numerical solutions are carried out using a steepest descent algorithm.