Pointwise accuracy of a finite element method for nonlinear variational inequalities

Summary Consider the following quasilinear elliptic PDE, which is equivalent to a nonlinear variational inequality: –divF(u)+(u)f. Here is a singular maximal monotone graph and the nonlinear differential operator is only assumed to be monotone; surfaces of prescribed mean curvature over obstacles may thus be viewed as relevant examples. The numerical approximation proposed in this paper consists of combining continuous piecewise linear finite elements with a preliminary regularization of . The resulting scheme is shown to be quasi-optimally accurate inL . The underlying analysis makes use of both a topological technique and a sharpL ^p -duality argument.This work was partially supported by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Italy while the author was in residence at the Istituto di Analisi Numerica del C.N.R. di Pavia