Penalization via global functionals of optimal-control problems for dissipative evolution

We consider an optimal control problem for an abstract nonlinear dissipa-tive evolution equation. The differential constraint is penalized by augmenting the target functional by a nonnegative global-in-time functional which is null-minimized iff the evolution equation is satisfied. Different variational settings are presented, leading to the convergence of the penalization method for gradient flows, noncyclic and semimonotone flows, doubly nonlinear evolutions, and GENERIC systems.