A priori error analysis of the mortar finite element method for variational inequalities

The mortar finite element method is a special domain decomposition method, which can handle the situation where meshes on different subdomains need not align across the interface. In this article, we will apply the mortar element method to general variational inequalities of free boundary type, such as free seepage flow, which may show different behaviors in different regions. We prove that if the solution of the original variational inequality belongs to H²(D), then the mortar element solution can achieve the same order error estimate as the conforming P₁ finite element solution. Application of the mortar element method to a free surface seepage problem and an obstacle problem verifies not only its convergence property but also its great computational efficiency. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2008     

单调混合变分不等式的若干新的迭代算法

In this paper,some new iterative algorithms for monotone mixed variational inequalities and the convergence in real Hilbert spaces are studied.     

A continuation method for (strongly) monotone variational inequalities

We consider the variational inequality problem, denoted by VIP(X, F), whereF is a strongly monotone function and the convex setX is described by some inequality (and possibly equality) constraints. This problem is solved by a continuation (or interior-point) method, which solves a sequence of certain perturbed variational inequality problems. These perturbed problems depend on a parameter > 0. It is shown that the perturbed problems have a unique solution for all values of > 0, and that any sequence generated by the continuation method converges to the unique solution of VIP(X,F) under a well-known linear independence constraint qualification (LICQ). We also discuss the extension of the continuation method to monotone variational inequalities and present some numerical results obtained with a suitable implementation of this method. © 1998 The Mathematical Programming Society, Inc. Published by Elsevier Science B.V.     

Strong convergence of new iterative projection methods with regularization for solving monotone variational inequalities in Hilbert spaces

In this paper, we introduce two new numerical methods for solving a variational inequality problem involving a monotone and Lipschitz continuous operator in a Hilbert space. We describe how to incorporate a regularization term depending on a parameter in the projection method and then establish the strong convergence of the resulting iterative regularization projection methods. Unlike known hybrid methods, the strong convergence of the new methods comes from the regularization technique. The first method is designed to work in the case where the Lipschitz constant of cost operator is known, whereas the second one is more easily implemented without this requirement. The reason is because the second method has used a simple computable stepsize rule. The variable stepsizes are generated by the second method at each iteration and based on the previous iterates. These stepsizes are found with only one cheap computation without line-search procedure. Several numerical experiments are implemented to show the computational effectiveness of the new methods over existing methods.     

An explicit algorithm for monotone variational inequalities

We introduce a fully explicit method for solving monotone variational inequalities in Hilbert spaces, where orthogonal projections onto the feasible set are replaced by projections onto suitable hyperplanes. We prove weak convergence of the whole generated sequence to a solution of the problem, under only the assumptions of continuity and monotonicity of the operator and existence of solutions.     

A globally convergent Newton method for solving strongly monotone variational inequalities

Variational inequality problems have been used to formulate and study equilibrium problems, which arise in many fields including economics, operations research and regional sciences. For solving variational inequality problems, various iterative methods such as projection methods and the nonlinear Jacobi method have been developed. These methods are convergent to a solution under certain conditions, but their rates of convergence are typically linear. In this paper we propose to modify the Newton method for variational inequality problems by using a certain differentiable merit function to determine a suitable step length. The purpose of introducing this merit function is to provide some measure of the discrepancy between the solution and the current iterate. It is then shown that, under the strong monotonicity assumption, the method is globally convergent and, under some additional assumptions, the rate of convergence is quadratic. Limited computational experience indicates the high efficiency of the proposed method.     

Optimality conditions for strongly monotone variational inequalities

Necessary conditions for optimal controls have been obtained for strongly monotone variational inequalities by the penalty method, Ekeland's Variational Principle, and lower-semicontinuity of set-valued mappings. It has been shown that these conditions are easy to apply and can imply some known necessary conditions. They also yield new optimality conditions.     

An improved general extra-gradient method with refined step size for nonlinear monotone variational inequalities

Extra-gradient method and its modified versions are direct methods for variational inequalities VI(Ω, F) that only need to use the value of function F in the iterative processes. This property makes the type of extra-gradient methods very practical for some variational inequalities arising from the real-world, in which the function F usually does not have any explicit expression and only its value can be observed and/or evaluated for given variable. Generally, such observation and/or evaluation may be obtained via some costly experiments. Based on this view of point, reducing the times of observing the value of function F in those methods is meaningful in practice. In this paper, a new strategy for computing step size is proposed in general extra-gradient method. With the new step size strategy, the general extra-gradient method needs to cost a relatively minor amount of computation to obtain a new step size, and can achieve the purpose of saving the amount of computing the value of F in solving VI(Ω, F). Further, the convergence analysis of the new algorithm and the properties related to the step size strategy are also discussed in this paper. Numerical experiments are given and show that the amount of computing the value of function F in solving VI(Ω, F) can be saved about 12–25% by the new general extra-gradient method.     

An approximate proximal-extragradient type method for monotone variational inequalities

Proximal point algorithms (PPA) are attractive methods for monotone variational inequalities. The approximate versions of PPA are more applicable in practice. A modified approximate proximal point algorithm (APPA) presented by Solodov and Svaiter [Math. Programming, Ser. B 88 (2000) 371–389] relaxes the inexactness criterion significantly. This paper presents an extended version of Solodov–Svaiter's APPA. Building the direction from current iterate to the new iterate obtained by Solodov–Svaiter's APPA, the proposed method improves the profit at each iteration by choosing the optimal step length along this direction. In addition, the inexactness restriction is relaxed further. Numerical example indicates the improvement of the proposed method.     

Gap functions and global error bounds for set-valued variational inequalities

The set-valued variational inequality problem is very useful in economics theory and nonsmooth optimization. In this paper, we introduce some gap functions for set-valued variational inequality problems under suitable assumptions. By using these gap functions we derive global error bounds for the solution of the set-valued variational inequality problems. Our results not only generalize the previously known results for classical variational inequalities from single-valued case to set-valued, but also present a way to construct gap functions and derive global error bounds for set-valued variational inequality problems.     

有界约束单调变分不等式的内点连续算法

讨论变分不等式问题VIP(X，F)，其中F是单调函数，约束集X为有界区域．利用摄动技术和一类光滑互补函数将问题等价转化为序列合两个参数的非线性方程组，然后据此建立VIP(X，F)的一个内点连续算法．分析和论证了方程组解的存在性和惟一性等重要性质，证明了算法很好的整体收敛性，最后对算法进行了初步的数值试验。     

An additive Schwarz method for variational inequalities

This paper proposes an additive Schwarz method for variational inequalities and their approximations by finite element methods. The Schwarz domain decomposition method is proved to converge with a geometric rate depending on the decomposition of the domain. The result is based on an abstract framework of convergence analysis established for general variational inequalities in Hilbert spaces.

     

A hybrid extragradient method for general variational inequalities

In this paper, we introduce and study a hybrid extragradient method for finding solutions of a general variational inequality problem with inverse-strongly monotone mapping in a real Hilbert space. An iterative algorithm is proposed by virtue of the hybrid extragradient method. Under two sets of quite mild conditions, we prove the strong convergence of this iterative algorithm to the unique common element of the set of fixed points of a nonexpansive mapping and the set of solutions of the general variational inequality problem, respectively. L. C. Zeng’s research was partially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (10771141), Ph.D. Program Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20070270004), and Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality grant (075105118). J. C. Yao’s research was partially supported by a grant from the National Science Council of Taiwan.     

Differential variational inequalities in infinite banach spaces

In this paper, we consider a new differential variational inequality (DVI, for short) which is composed of an evolution equation and a variational inequality in infinite Banach spaces. This kind of problems may be regarded as a special feedback control problem. Based on the Browder's theorem and the optimal control theory, we show the existence of solutions to the mentioned problem.     

Finite difference scheme for variational inequalities

In this paper, we show that a class of variational inequalities related with odd-order obstacle problems can be characterized by a system of differential equations, which are solved using the finite difference scheme. The variational inequality formulation is used to discuss the uniqueness and existence of the solution of the obstacle problems.     

Existence of solutions of parabolic variational inequalities with one-sided restrictions

We prove sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution of a strong nonlinear variational inequality of parabolic type. The theory can be used for solving parabolic equations with one-sided boundary conditions. As an example, we prove the existence of a solution of a strong parabolic variational inequality with p-Laplacian in the Sobolev space L _p (0, T, W _p ¹ ()), p [2, ).Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, vol. 77, no. 3, 2005, pp. 460–476.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by O. V. Solonukha.This revised version was published online in April 2005 with a corrected issue number.     

Lexicographic variational inequalities with applications

In this article, we consider equivalence properties between various kinds of lexicographic variational inequalities. By employing various concepts of monotonicity, we show that the usual sequential variational inequality is equivalent to the direct lexicographic variational inequality or to the dual lexicographic variational inequality. We establish several existence results for lexicographic variational inequalities. Also, we introduce the lexicographic complementarity problem and establish its equivalence with the lexicographic variational inequality. We illustrate our approach by several examples of applications to vector transportation and vector spatial equilibrium problems.     

Block monotone iterative algorithms for variational inequalities with nonlinear operators

Some block iterative methods for solving variational inequalities with nonlinear operators are proposed. Monotone convergence of the algorithms is obtained. Some comparison theorems are also established. Compared with the research work in given by Pao in 1995 for nonlinear equations and research work in given by Zeng and Zhou in 2002 for elliptic variational inequalities, the algorithms proposed in this paper are independent of the boundedness of the derivatives of the nonlinear operator.     

The variational contact problem for elastic objects of different dimensions

We consider the variational free boundary problem describing the contact of an elastic plate with a thin elastic obstacle. The contact domain is unknown a priori and should be determined. The problem is described by a variational inequality for a fourth-order operator. The constraint on the displacement is given on a set of dimension less than that of the solution domain. We find the boundary conditions on the set of the possible contact and their exact statement. We justify the mixed statement of the problem and analyze the limit cases corresponding to the unbounded increase of the elasticity coefficients of the contacting bodies.