A priori error analysis of virtual element method for contact problem

Abstract

As an extension of the finite element method, the virtual element method (VEM) can handle very general polygonal meshes, making it very suitable for non-matching meshes. In (Wriggers et al. in Comput. Mech. 58:1039–1050, 2016), the lowest-order virtual element method was applied to solve the contact problem of two elastic bodies on non-matching meshes. The numerical experiments showed the robustness and accuracy of the virtual element scheme. In this paper, we establish a priori error estimate of the virtual element method for the contact problem and prove that the lowest-order VEM achieves linear convergence order, which is optimal.