Unlike the partial differential equations, the solutions of variational inequalities exhibit singularities even when the data is smooth due to the existence of free boundaries. Therefore the numerical procedure of these problems based on uniform refinement becomes inefficient due to the loss of the order of convergence. A popular remedy to enhance the efficiency of the numerical method is to use adaptive finite element methods based on computable a posteriori error bounds. Discontinuous Galerkin methods play a very important role in the local mesh adaptive refinement techniques.

The main focus in this thesis has been on the derivation of reliable and efficient error bounds for the discontinuous Galerkin methods applied to elliptic variational inequalities. The variational inequalities can be split into two kinds, namely, inequalities of the first kind and the second kind. We study an elliptic obstacle problem and a Signorini contact problem in the category of the first kind, while the frictional plate contact problem in the category of the fourth order variational inequalities of second kind. The mathematical analysis of error estimation in this class of problems crucially depends on a suitable nonlinear smoothing function that enriches the smoothness of the numerical solution. Another remarkable advantage of discontinuous Galerkin methods has been realized in the applications to higher order problems. Numerical experiments support the theoretical results and exhibit optimal convergence.