Finite element analysis of a holonomic elastic-plastic problem

Summary A thorough analysis of the finite element method is given for a holonomic elastic-plastic problem. An inequality of the Cea's lemma type is proved, which is the basis of error estimates for various finite element solutions. Difficulty caused by a non-differentiable term in the problem can be overcome by using two convergent procedures, an iterative procedure and a regularization procedure. An a-posteriori quantitative error estimate is derived for the regularized solution.The work was done while the author was at the Department of Mathematics, University of Maryland, College Park. The research was partially supported by the National Science Foundation grant CCR-88-20279