No label defined (Q4938240)

The authors present an adaptive boundary element method for solution of static contact problems. The classical formulation of the contact problem is considered for an elastic body with a rigid foundation, including friction described by the generalized Coulomb law. The weak formulation of the frictional contact problem leads to a variational inequality. This problem is approximated with a variational equation by using the penalty method and replacement of the Signorini condition by a nonlinear compliance boundary condition. Furthermore, certain regularization assumptions are adopted with respect to differentiability of the friction functional. Combining the approximate variational equation for frictional contact problem with the boundary integral equation formulation for elasticity problems, the authors give a boundary variational formulation of the contact problem. The derived equation is discretized with a conforming Galerkin method. Finally, the authors adapt a residual-based local error indicator for linear pseudodifferential equations for estimating the discretization error in the proposed numerical solution of the frictional contact problem. A numerical example is given. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0924.00038].