| Abstract: | In this article, a Galerkin's finite element approach based on weighted‐residual is presented to find approximate solutions of a system of fourth‐order boundary‐value problems associated with obstacle, unilateral and contact problems. The approach utilizes a piece‐wise cubic approximations utilizing cubic Hermite interpolation polynomials. Numerical studies have shown the superior accuracy and lesser computational cost of the scheme in comparison to cubic spline, non‐polynomial spline and cubic non‐polynomial spline methods. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the applicability of the method. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 27: 1551–1560, 2011 |
