ON A NUMERICAL-METHOD FOR SOLVING OBSTACLE PROBLEMS

Variational inequality theory provides us with a general and unified framework to study a large class of unrelated free and moving boundary problems that arise in pure and applied sciences. In this paper we show that a class of variational inequalities related with obstacle problems can be characterized by a system of differential equations which can be solved by using the Fourier series direct method coupled with the Ritz technique. An illustrative example is given.