A QUASISTATIC FRICTIONAL CONTACT PROBLEM WITH NORMAL DAMPED RESPONSE FOR THERMO-ELECTRO-ELASTIC-VISCOPLASTIC BODIES

We consider a mathematical problem for quasistatic contact between a thermo-electro--elastic-viscoplastic body and an obstacle. The contact is modeled by a general normal damped response condition with friction law and heat exchange. We present a variational formulation of the problem and prove the existence and uniqueness of the weak solution. The proof is based on the formulation of four intermediate problems for the displacement field, the electric potential field and the temperature field, respectively. We prove the unique solvability of the intermediate problems, then we construct a contraction mapping whose unique fixed point is the solution of the original problem.

A New Class of History–Dependent Evolutionary Variational–Hemivariational Inequalities with Unilateral Constraints

In this paper we study a new abstract evolutionary variational–hemivariational inequality which involves unilateral constraints and history–dependent operators. First, we prove the existence and uniqueness of solution by using a mixed equilibrium formulation with suitable selected functions together with a fixed-point principle for history–dependent operators. Then, we apply the abstract result to show the unique weak solvability to a dynamic viscoelastic frictional contact problem. The contact law involves a unilateral Signorini-type condition for the normal velocity combined with the nonmonotone normal damped response condition while the friction condition is a version of the Coulomb law of dry friction in which the friction bound depends on the accumulated slip.

Analysis of a Dynamic Viscoelastic Contact Problem with Normal Compliance, Normal Damped Response, and Nonmonotone Slip Rate Dependent Friction

We consider a mathematical model which describes the dynamic evolution of a viscoelastic body in frictional contact with an obstacle. The contact is modelled with a combination of a normal compliance and a normal damped response law associated with a slip rate-dependent version of Coulomb’s law of dry friction. We derive a variational formulation and an existence and uniqueness result of the weak solution of the problem is presented. Next, we introduce a fully discrete approximation of the variational problem based on a finite element method and on an implicit time integration scheme. We study this fully discrete approximation schemes and bound the errors of the approximate solutions. Under regularity assumptions imposed on the exact solution, optimal order error estimates are derived for the fully discrete solution. Finally, after recalling the solution of the frictional contact problem, some numerical simulations are provided in order to illustrate both the behavior of the solution related to the frictional contact conditions and the theoretical error estimate result.