Numerical solution of an H (curl)-elliptic hemivariational inequality

Abstract

Abstract This paper is concerned with the analysis and numerical solution of an $\boldsymbol {H}({\textbf {curl}})$-elliptic hemivariational inequality (HVI). One source of the HVI is through a temporal semidiscretization of a related hyperbolic Maxwell equation problem. An equivalent minimization principle is introduced, and the solution existence and uniqueness of the $\boldsymbol {H}({\textbf {curl}})$-elliptic HVI are proved. Numerical analysis of the HVI is provided with a general Galerkin approximation, including a Céa’s inequality for convergence and error estimation. When the linear edge finite element method is employed, an optimal-order error estimate is derived under a suitable solution regularity assumption. A fully discrete scheme based on the backward Euler difference in time and a mixed finite element method in space is also analyzed, and stability estimates are derived for first-order terms of the fully discrete solution. Numerical results are reported on linear edge finite element solutions of the $\boldsymbol {H}({\textbf {curl}})$-elliptic HVI for numerical evidence of the theoretically predicted convergence order.