On the boundary element method for the Signorini problem of the Laplacian (Q1326454)

For the Laplace equation with mixed boundary conditions of Signorini, Dirichlet and Neumann type two equivalent boundary variational inequalities are deduced. The second formulation, which is dual to the first, allows only Sigorini boundary conditions to be posed. Further, the discretization by a boundary element Galerkin method is described and quasi-optimal error estimates are given. The discretized problems are equivalent to quadratic optimization problems. A modified decomposition- coordination method is applied for its solution. Numerical examples confirm the predicted rate of convergence.