In this work we consider a solid body $\Omega\subset{\Bbb R}^3$ constituted by a nonhomogeneous elastoplastic material, submitted to a density of body forces $\lambda f $ and a density of forces $\lambda g$ acting on the boundary where the real $\lambda $ is the loading parameter. The problem is to determine, in the case of an unbounded convex of elasticity, the Limit load denoted by $\bar{\lambda}$ beyond which there is a break of the structure. The case of a bounded convex of elasticity is done in [El-Fekih and Hadhri, RAIRO: Modél. Math. Anal. Numér. 29 (1995) 391–419]. Then assuming that the convex of elasticity at the point x of Ω, denoted by K(x), is written in the form of $\mbox{K}^D (x) + {\Bbb R}\mbox{I}$, I is the identity of ${{\Bbb R}^9}_{sym}$, and the deviatoric component $\mbox{K}^D$ is bounded regardless of x $\in\Omega$, we show under the condition “Rot f $\not= 0$ or g is not colinear to the normal on a part of the boundary of Ω", that the Limit Load $\bar{\lambda}$ searched is equal to the inverse of the infimum of the gauge of the Elastic convex translated by stress field equilibrating the unitary load corresponding to $\lambda =1$; moreover we show that this infimum is reached in a suitable function space.

We study the theoretical and numericalcoupling of two hyperbolic systems of conservation laws at a fixed interface. As already proven in the scalar case, the couplingpreserves in a weak sense the continuity of the solution at the interfacewithout imposing the overall conservativity of the coupled model. We develop a detailed analysis of the coupling inthe linear case. In the nonlinear case, we either use a linearized approach or a coupling method based on the solution of a Riemann problem. We discuss both approaches in the case of the coupling of two fluid models at a material contact discontinuity, the models being the usual gas dynamics equations with different equations ofstate. We also study the coupling of two-temperature plasma fluid models and illustrate the approach by numericalsimulations.

Tuning the alternating Schwarz method to the exterior problems is the subject of this paper. We present the original algorithm and we propose a modification of it, so that the solution of the subproblem involving the condition at infinity has an explicit integral representation formulas while the solution of the other subproblem, set in a bounded domain, is approximated by classical variational methods. We investigate many of the advantages of the new Schwarz approach: a geometrical convergence rate, an easy implementation, a substantial economy in computational costs and a satisfactory accuracy in the numerical results as well as their agreement with the theoretical statements.

In this paper, we are concerned with a kind of Signorini transmission problem in a unbounded domain. A variational inequality is derived when discretizing this problem by coupled FEM-BEM. To solve such variational inequality, an iterative method, which can be viewed as a variant of the D-N alternative method, will be introduced. In the iterative method, the finite element part and the boundary element part can be solved independently. It will be shown that the convergence speed of this iteration is independent of the mesh size. Besides, a combination between this method and the steepest descent method is also discussed.

We present and analyze an interior penalty method for the numerical discretization of the indefinite time-harmonic Maxwell equations in mixed form. The method is based on the mixed discretization of the curl-curl operator developed in [Houston et al., J. Sci. Comp.22 (2005) 325–356] and can be understood as a non-stabilized variant of the approach proposed in [Perugia et al., Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Engrg.191 (2002) 4675–4697]. We show the well-posedness of this approach and derive optimal a priori error estimates in the energy-norm as well as the L2-norm. The theoretical results are confirmed in a series of numerical experiments.

Finite element approximation for degenerate parabolic equations is considered. We propose a semidiscrete scheme provided with order-preserving and L1 contraction properties, making use of piecewise linear trial functions and the lumping mass technique. Those properties allow us to apply nonlinear semigroup theory, and the wellposedness and stability in L1 and L∞, respectively, of the scheme are established. Under certain hypotheses on the data, we also derive L1 convergence without any convergence rate. The validity of theoretical results is confirmed by numerical examples.

We build corotational symmetric solutions to the harmonic map flow from the unit disc into the unit sphere which have constant degree. First, we prove the existence of such solutions, using a time semi-discrete scheme based on the idea that the harmonic map flow is the L2-gradient of the relaxed Dirichlet energy. We prove a partial uniqueness result concerning these solutions. Then, we compute numerically these solutions by a moving-mesh method which allows us to deal with the singularity at the origin. We show numerical evidence of the convergence of the method.

In order to describe a solid which deforms smoothly in some region, but non smoothly in some other region, many multiscale methods have recently been proposed. They aim at coupling an atomistic model (discrete mechanics) with a macroscopic model (continuum mechanics). We provide here a theoretical ground for such a coupling in a one-dimensional setting. We briefly study the general case of a convex energy, and next concentrate on a specific example of a nonconvex energy, the Lennard-Jones case. In the latter situation, we prove that the discretization needs to account in an adequate way for the coexistence of a discrete model and a continuous one. Otherwise, spurious discretization effects may appear. We provide a numerical analysis of the approach.

The 2D-Signorini contact problem with Tresca and Coulomb friction is discussed in infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. First, the problem with given friction (Tresca friction) is considered. It leads to a constraint non-differentiable minimization problem. By means of the Fenchel duality theorem this problem can be transformed into a constrained minimization involving a smooth functional. A regularization technique for the dual problem motivated by augmented Lagrangians allows to apply an infinite-dimensional semi-smooth Newton method for the solution of the problem with given friction. The resulting algorithm is locally superlinearly convergent and can be interpreted as active set strategy. Combining the method with an augmented Lagrangian method leads to convergence of the iterates to the solution of the original problem. Comprehensive numerical tests discuss, among others, the dependence of the algorithm's performance on material and regularization parameters and on the mesh. The remarkable efficiency of the method carries over to the Signorini problem with Coulomb friction by means of fixed point ideas.