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.