Well-posedness of constrained evolutionary differential variational–hemivariational inequalities with applications

A system of a first order history-dependent evolutionary variational– hemivariational inequality with unilateral constraints coupled with a nonlinear ordinary differential equation in a Banach space is studied. Based on a fixed point theorem for history dependent operators, results on the well-posedness of the system are proved. Existence, uniqueness, continuous dependence of the solution on the data, and the solution regularity are established. Two applications of dynamic problems from contact mechanics illustrate the abstract results. First application is a unilateral viscoplastic frictionless contact problem which leads to a hemivariational inequality for the velocity field, and the second one deals with a viscoelastic frictional contact problem which is described by a variational inequality.     

History-dependent variational–hemivariational inequalities in contact mechanics

We consider an abstract class of variational–hemivariational inequalities which arise in the study of a large number of mathematical models of contact. The novelty consists in the structure of the inequalities which involve two history-dependent operators and two nondifferentiable functionals, a convex and a nonconvex one. For these inequalities we provide an existence and uniqueness result of the solution. The proof is based on arguments of surjectivity for pseudomonotone operators and fixed point. Then, we consider a viscoelastic problem in which the contact is frictionless and is modeled with a new boundary condition which describes both the instantaneous and the memory effects of the foundation. We prove that this problem leads to a history-dependent variational–hemivariational inequality in which the unknown is the displacement field. We apply our abstract result in order to prove the unique weak solvability of this viscoelastic contact problem.     

Periodic solutions to history-dependent differential hemivariational inequalities with applications

In this article, we investigate a hybrid model combined by a parabolic differential equation and a parabolic hemivariational inequality (so-called differential hemivariational inequality of parabolic–parabolic type) in general infinite dimensional spaces which includes the history-dependent operator. The solvability of initial value problems as well as the periodic problems of the hemivariational inequality and the differential hemivariational inequality have been proved. In application, we study a contact problem with normal compliance driven by a history-dependent dynamical system.     

Dynamic bilateral contact problem for viscoelastic piezoelectric materials with adhesion

A model of a dynamic viscoelastic adhesive contact between a piezoelectric body and a deformable foundation is described. The model consists of a system of the hemivariational inequality of hyperbolic type for the displacement, the time dependent elliptic equation for the electric potential and the ordinary differential equation for the adhesion field. In the hemivariational inequality the friction forces are derived from a nonconvex superpotential through the generalized Clarke subdifferential. The existence of a weak solution is proved by embedding the problem into a class of second-order evolution inclusions and by applying a surjectivity result for multivalued operators.     

Dynamic frictionless contact with adhesion

A model for the dynamic, adhesive, frictionless contact between a viscoelastic body and a deformable foundation is described. The adhesion process is modeled by a bonding field on the contact surface. The contact is described by a modified normal compliance condition. The tangential shear due to the bonding field is included. The problem is formulated as a coupled system of a variational equality for the displacements and a differential equation for the bonding field. The existence of a unique weak solution for the problem is established, together with a partial regularity result. The existence proof proceeds by construction of an appropriate mapping which is shown to be a contraction on a Hilbert space.     

Analysis of a general dynamic history-dependent variational–hemivariational inequality

This paper is devoted to the study of a general dynamic variational–hemivariational inequality with history-dependent operators. These operators appear in a convex potential and in a locally Lipschitz superpotential. The existence and uniqueness of a solution to the inequality problem is explored through a result on a class of nonlinear evolutionary abstract inclusions involving a nonmonotone multivalued term described by the Clarke generalized gradient. The result presented in this paper is new and general. It can be applied to study various dynamic contact problems. As an illustrative example, we apply the theory on a dynamic frictional viscoelastic contact problem in which the contact is modeled by a nonmonotone Clarke subdifferential boundary condition and the friction is described by a version of the Coulomb law of dry friction with the friction bound depending on the total slip.     

History-dependent subdifferential inclusions and hemivariational inequalities in contact mechanics

We consider a class of subdifferential inclusions involving a history-dependent term for which we provide an existence and uniqueness result. The proof is based on arguments on pseudomonotone operators and fixed point. Then we specialize this result in the study of a class of history-dependent hemivariational inequalities. Such kind of problems arises in a large number of mathematical models which describe quasistatic processes of contact between a deformable body and an obstacle, the so-called foundation. To provide an example we consider a viscoelastic problem in which the frictional contact is modeled with subdifferential boundary conditions. We prove that this problem leads to a history-dependent hemivariational inequality in which the unknown is the velocity field. Then we apply our abstract result in order to prove the unique weak solvability of the corresponding contact problem.     

Decay mild solutions of Hilfer fractional differential variational–hemivariational inequalities

The primary objective of this paper is to explore a decay mild solution governed by a class of dynamical systems, called Hilfer fractional differential variational–hemivariational inequality (HFDVHVI, for short), which is composed of a Hilfer fractional evolution differential inclusion and a variational–hemivariational inequality involving two history-dependent operators in the framework of spaces. Our first aim is to investigate the solvability of the mild solutions to (HFDVHVI) by means of fixed point principle. The second step of the paper is to study the existence of decay mild solutions to (HFDVHVI) via giving expression for the Mittag-Leffler function and the Wright function.     

A class of history-dependent systems of evolution inclusions with applications

This paper is devoted to studying a system of coupled nonlinear first order history-dependent evolution inclusions in the framework of evolution triples of spaces. The multivalued terms are of the Clarke subgradient or of the convex subdifferential form. Using a surjectivity result for multivalued maps and a fixed point argument for a history-dependent operator, we prove that the system has a unique solution. We conclude with two examples of an evolutionary differential variational–hemivariational inequality and of a dynamic frictional contact problem in mechanics, which illustrate the abstract results.     

Well-posedness of a general class of elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequalities

In this paper, well-posedness of a general class of elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequalities is studied. This general class includes several classes of the previously studied elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequalities as special cases. Moreover, our approach of the well-posedness analysis is easily accessible, unlike those in the published papers on elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequalities so far. First, prior theoretical results are recalled for a class of elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequalities featured by the presence of a potential operator. Then the well-posedness results are extended through a Banach fixed-point argument to the same class of inequalities without the potential operator assumption. The well-posedness results are further extended to a more general class of elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequalities through another application of the Banach fixed-point argument. The theoretical results are illustrated in the study of a contact problem. For comparison, the contact problem is studied both as an elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequality and as an elliptic variational–hemivariational inequality.     

Dynamic thermoviscoelastic problem with friction and damage

In this paper we present a model of dynamic frictional contact between a thermoviscoelastic body and a foundation. The thermoviscoelastic constitutive law includes a temperature effect described by the parabolic equation with the subdifferential boundary condition and a damage effect described by the parabolic inclusion with the homogeneous Neumann boundary condition. Contact is modeled with bilateral condition and is associated to a subdifferential frictional law. The variational formulation of the problem leads to a system of hyperbolic hemivariational inequality for the displacement, parabolic hemivariational inequality for the temperature and parabolic variational inequality for the damage. The existence of a unique weak solution is proved by using recent results from the theory of hemivariational inequalities, variational inequalities, and a fixed point argument.     

Minimization principles for elliptic hemivariational inequalities

In this paper, we explore conditions under which certain elliptic hemivariational inequalities permit equivalent minimization principles. It is shown that for an elliptic variational–hemivariational inequality, under the usual assumptions that guarantee the solution existence and uniqueness, if an additional condition is satisfied, the solution of the variational–hemivariational inequality is also the minimizer of a corresponding energy functional. Then, two variants of the equivalence result are given, that are more convenient to use for applications in contact mechanics and in numerical analysis of the variational–hemivariational inequality. When the convex terms are dropped, the results on the elliptic variational–hemivariational inequalities are reduced to that on “pure” elliptic hemivariational inequalities. Finally, two representative examples from contact mechanics are discussed to illustrate application of the theoretical results.     

Differential variational–hemivariational inequalities with application to contact mechanics

In this paper we study a dynamical system which consists of the Cauchy problem for a nonlinear evolution equation of first order coupled with a nonlinear time-dependent variational–hemivariational inequality with constraint in Banach spaces. The evolution equation is considered in the framework of evolution triple of spaces, and the inequality which involves both the convex and nonconvex potentials. We prove existence of solution by the Kakutani–Ky Fan fixed point theorem combined with the Minty formulation and the theory of hemivariational inequalities. We illustrate our findings by examining a nonlinear quasistatic elastic frictional contact problem for which we provide a result on existence of weak solution.     

Analysis of a quasistatic contact problem for piezoelectric materials

We consider a mathematical model which describes the frictional contact between a piezoelectric body and an electrically conductive foundation. The process is quasistatic, the material behavior is modeled with an electro-viscoelastic constitutive law and the contact is described with subdifferential boundary conditions. We derive the variational formulation of the problem which is in the form of a system involving two history-dependent hemivariational inequalities in which the unknowns are the velocity and electric potential field. Then we prove the existence of a unique weak solution to the model. The proof is based on a recent result on history-dependent hemivariational inequalities obtained in Migórski et al. (submitted for publication) [16].     

A quasistatic viscoplastic contact problem with normal compliance,unilateral constraint,memory term and friction

The goal of this paper is to deal with a mathematical model which describes the quasistatic frictional contact between a viscoplastic body and a foundation. The contact is modeled with normal compliance, unilateral constraint and memory term. We present the classical formulation of the problem together with the list of assumptions on the data. Then we derive the variational–hemivariational formulation of the model and we prove its unique weak solvability. The proof is based on a recent abstract result of a class of history-dependent variational–hemivariational inequalities.     

A viscoelastic frictionless contact problem with adhesion

We consider a model for the quasistatic, bilateral, adhesive and frictionless contact between a viscoelastic body and a rigid foundation. The adhesion process on the contact surface is modeled by a surface internal variable, the bonding field, and the tangential shear due to the bonding field is included. The problem is formulated as a coupled system of a variational equality for the displacements and an integro-differential equation for the bonding field. The existence of a unique weak solution for the problem is established by construction of an appropriate mapping which is shown to be a contraction on a Hilbert space. We also consider the problem describing the bilateral contact between two viscoelastic bodies, and establish similar results.     

Elastic contact problem with Coulomb friction and normal compliance in Orlicz spaces

A static contact problem for inhomogeneous elastic materials is studied with a non-polynomial growth of the elasticity under the Coulomb’s law of dry friction and the normal compliance condition. We demonstrate the results on existence and uniqueness of a solution to an abstract subdifferential inclusion and a variational–hemivariational inequality in the reflexive Orlicz–Sobolev space which are applied to the static elastic frictional problem.     

A dynamic frictional contact problem for piezoelectric materials

We consider a mathematical model which describes the frictional contact between a piezoelectric body and an electrically conductive foundation. The process is dynamic, the material's behavior is modeled with an electro-viscoelastic constitutive law and the contact is described by subdifferential boundary conditions. We derive the variational formulation of the problem which is in the form of a system involving a second order evolutionary hemivariational inequality for the displacement field coupled with a time-dependent hemivariational inequality for the electric potential field. Then we prove the existence of a unique weak solution to the model. The proof is based on arguments of abstract second order evolutionary inclusions with monotone operators.     

Minimax principles for elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequalities

In this paper, minimax principles are explored for elliptic mixed hemivariational–variational inequalities. Under certain conditions, a saddle-point formulation is shown to be equivalent to a mixed hemivariational–variational inequality. While the minimax principle is of independent interest, it is employed in this paper to provide an elementary proof of the solution existence of the mixed hemivariational–variational inequality. Theoretical results are illustrated in the applications of two contact problems.     

A convergence result in the study of bone remodeling contact problems

We consider the approximation of a bone remodeling model with the Signorini contact conditions by a contact problem with normal compliant obstacle, when the obstacle's deformability coefficient converges to zero (that is, the obstacle's stiffness tends to infinity). The variational problem is a coupled system composed of a nonlinear variational equation (in the case of normal compliance contact conditions) or a variational inequality (for the case of Signorini's contact conditions), for the mechanical displacement field, and a first-order ordinary differential equation for the bone remodeling function. A theoretical result, which states the convergence of the contact problem with normal compliance contact law to the Signorini problem, is then proved. Finally, some numerical simulations, involving examples in one and two dimensions, are reported to show this convergence behaviour.