Hemivariational inequalities represent an important class of problems in
nonsmooth and nonconvex mechanics. By means of them, problems with
nonmonotone, possibly multivalued, constitutive laws can be formulated,
mathematically analyzed and finally numerically solved. The present book
gives a rigorous analysis of finite element approximation for a class of
hemivariational inequalities of elliptic and parabolic type. Finite
element models are described and their convergence properties are
established. Discretized models are numerically treated as nonconvex and
nonsmooth optimization problems. The book includes a comprehensive
description of typical representants of nonsmooth optimization methods.
Basic knowledge of finite element mathematics, functional and nonsmooth
analysis is needed. The book is self-contained, and all necessary
results from these disciplines are summarized in the introductory
chapter.
Audience: Engineers and applied mathematicians at universities and
working in industry. Also graduate-level students in advanced nonlinear
computational mechanics, mathematics of finite elements and
approximation theory. Chapter 1 includes the necessary prerequisite
materials.