The Nonconforming Finite Element Method for Signorini Problem

Abstract

We present the Crouzeix-Raviart linear nonconforming finite element approximation of the variational inequality resulting from Signorini problem. We show if the displacement field is of $H^2$ regularity, then the convergence rate can be improved from $\mathcal{O}(h^{3/4})$ to quasi-optimal $\mathcal{O}(h|\log h|^{1/4})$ with respect to the energy norm as that of the continuous linear finite element approximation. If stronger but reasonable regularity is available, the convergence rate can be improved to the optimal $\mathcal{O}(h)$ as expected by the linear approximation.