Numerical solution for an inverse variational problem (Q2069148)

In the paper a numerical method to solve the inverse problem associated with a system of variational inequalities is proposed. To this end, a minimax equality to prove the existence of a solution to the system of inequalities is used. To solve the inverse problem derived from the system of variational inequalities, the so called collage theorem which is a consequence of the version of the Stampacchia theorem for a system of variational inequalities is applied. The approach of the collage theorem starts by considering the forward problem as a solution to a fixed point problem and deduces its analysis from Banach's fixed point theorem. Finally, the behaviour of the method is illustrated by means of a numerical example. First, a numerical approximation of the solution of the forward problem is proposed, and after that the numerical treatment for the inverse problem is developed.