On the Coupling of Boundary Integral and Finite Element Methods for Signorini Problems

Abstract

In this paper, an exterior Signorini problem is reduced to a variational inequality on a bounded inner region with the help of a coupling of boundary integral and finite element methods. We established an equivalence between the original exterior Signorini problem and the variational inequality on the bounded inner region coupled with two integral equations on an auxiliary boundary. We also introduce a finite element approximation of the variational inequality and a boundary element approximation of the integral equations. Furthermore, the optimal error estimates are given.