This work develops theoretical and applied results for variational convex analysis. First we present the basic tools of analysis necessary to develop the core theory and applications. New results concerning duality principles for systems originally modeled by non-linear differential equations are shown in chapters 9 to 17. A key aspect of this work is that although the original problems are non-linear with corresponding non-convex variational formulations, the dual formulations obtained are almost always concave and amenable to numerical computations. When the primal problem has no solution in the classical sense, the solution of dual problem is a weak limit of minimizing sequences, and the evaluation of such average behavior is important in many practical applications. Among the results we highlight the dual formulations for micro-magnetism, phase transition models, composites in elasticity and conductivity and others. To summarize, in the present work we introduce convex analysis as an interesting alternative approach for the understanding and computation of some important problems in the modern calculus of variations.

Ph. D.