Approximation of a bending plate problem with a boundary unilateral constraint (Q1067821)

Considered is a unilateral elliptic boundary value problem of forth order, namely the bending problem for a unilaterally supported elastic plate under transverse forces. Firstly, for the class of forces under consideration, existence and uniqueness of the solution is established. Then, for a discretization of mixed type based on Hellan-Hermann- Johnson's scheme the author proves O(h) and O(h\(| \ln h|^{1/2})\) error bounds for moments and displacement, respectively.