Area of contraction of Newton's method applied to a penalty technique for obstacle problems (Q1321611)

The obstacle problem is considered as an abstract variational problem with inequality constraints. The discretization is made by linear finite elements. The constraints are included into an auxiliary cost functional by means of a penalty technique. Nonlinear variational equations are obtained. They are solved by the Newton method. The area of contraction of the Newton method is estimated depending on the penalty parameter and on the discretization one.