Analysis of a dynamic contact problem for electro-viscoelastic cylinders

We consider a mathematical model which describes the antiplane shear deformations of a piezoelectric cylinder in frictional contact with a foundation. The process is mechanically dynamic and electrically static, the material behavior is described with a linearly electro-viscoelastic constitutive law, the contact is frictional and the foundation is assumed to be electrically conductive. Both the friction and the electrical conductivity condition on the contact surface are described with subdifferential boundary conditions. We derive a variational formulation of the problem which is of the form of a system coupling a second order hemivariational inequality for the displacement field 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 abstract results for second order evolutionary inclusions in Banach spaces. Finally, we present concrete examples of friction laws and electrical conductivity conditions for which our result is valid.     

Adhesive contact problem for viscoplastic materials

We examine a mathematical model that describes a quasistatic adhesive contact between a viscoplastic body and deformable foundation. The material’s behaviour is described by the rate-type constitutive law which involves functions with a non-polynomial growth. The contact is modelled by the normal compliance condition with limited penetration and adhesion, a subdifferential friction condition also depending on adhesion, and the evolution of bonding field is governed by an ordinary differential equation. We present the variational formulation of this problem which is a system of an almost history-dependent variational–hemivariational inequality for the displacement field and an ordinary differential equation for the bonding field. The results on existence and uniqueness of solution to an abstract almost history-dependent inclusion and variational–hemivariational inequality in the reflexive Orlicz–Sobolev space are proved and applied to the adhesive contact problem.     

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 antiplane contact problem with adhesion

We study a mechanical problem modeling the antiplane shear deformation of a linearly elastic body in adhesive contact with a foundation. The material is assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic and the process is quasistatic. 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 is included. We establish the existence of a unique weak solution for the problem, by construction of an appropriate mapping which is shown to be a contraction on a Banach space.     

Existence and Regularity for Dynamic Viscoelastic Adhesive Contact with Damage

A model for the dynamic process of frictionless adhesive contact between a viscoelastic body and a reactive foundation, which takes into account the damage of the material resulting from tension or compression, is presented. Contact is described by the normal compliance condition. Material damage is modelled by the damage field, which measures the pointwise fractional decrease in the load-carrying capacity of the material, and its evolution is described by a differential inclusion. The model allows for different damage rates caused by tension or compression. The adhesion is modelled by the bonding field, which measures the fraction of active bonds on the contact surface. The existence of the unique weak solution is established using the theory of set-valued pseudomonotone operators introduced by Kuttler and Shillor (1999). Additional regularity of the solution is obtained when the problem data is more regular and satisfies appropriate compatibility conditions.     

Solvability of dynamic antiplane frictional contact problems for viscoelastic cylinders

We study a mathematical model which describes the antiplane shear deformations of a cylinder in frictional contact with a rigid foundation. The process is dynamic, the material behavior is described with a linearly viscoelastic constitutive law and friction is modeled with a general subdifferential boundary condition. We derive a variational formulation of the model which is in a form of an evolutionary hemivariational inequality for the displacement field. Then we prove the existence of a weak solution to the model. The proof is based on an abstract result for second order evolutionary inclusions in Banach spaces. Also, we prove that, under additional assumptions, the weak solution to the model is unique. We complete our results with concrete examples of friction laws for which our results are valid.     

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.     

Boundary optimal control for nonlinear antiplane problems

We consider a nonlinear antiplane problem which models the deformation of an elastic cylindrical body in frictional contact with a rigid foundation. The contact is modelled with Tresca’s law of dry friction in which the friction bound is slip dependent.The aim of this article is to study an optimal control problem which consists of leading the stress tensor as close as possible to a given target, by acting with a control on the boundary of the body. The existence of at least one optimal control is proved. Next we introduce a regularized problem, depending on a small parameter ρ, and we study the convergence of the optimal controls when ρ tends to zero. An optimality condition is delivered for the regularized problem.     

A frictionless contact problem for elastic–viscoplastic materials with normal compliance: Numerical analysis and computational experiments

Summary. In this paper we consider a frictionless contact problem between an elastic–viscoplastic body and an obstacle. The process is assumed to be quasistatic and the contact is modeled with normal compliance. We present a variational formulation of the problem and prove the existence and uniqueness of the weak solution, using strongly monotone operators arguments and Banach's fixed point theorem. We also study the numerical approach to the problem using spatially semi-discrete and fully discrete finite elements schemes with implicit and explicit discretization in time. We show the existence of the unique solution for each of the schemes and derive error estimates on the approximate solutions. Finally, we present some numerical results involving examples in one, two and three dimensions. Received May 20, 2000 / Revised version received January 8, 2001 / Published online June 7, 2001     

Analysis of a dynamic unilateral contact problem for a cracked viscoelastic body

This work deals with the mathematical analysis of a dynamic unilateral contact problem with friction for a cracked viscoelastic body. We consider here a Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic material and a nonlocal friction law. To prove the existence of a solution to the unilateral problem with friction, an auxiliary penalized problem is studied. Several estimates on the penalized solutions are given, which enable us to pass to the limit by using compactness results. Received: February 16, 2005     

Vanishing viscosity for hemivariational inequalities modeling dynamic problems in elasticity

In this paper we consider a mathematical model describing a dynamic linear elastic contact problem with nonmonotone skin effects. The subdifferential multivalued and multidimensional reaction–displacement law is employed. We treat an evolution hemivariational inequality of hyperbolic type which is a weak formulation of this mechanical problem. We establish a result on the existence of solutions to the Cauchy problem for the hemivariational inequality. This result is a consequence of an existence theorem for second order evolution inclusion. For the latter, using the parabolic regularization method, we obtain the solution as a limit when the viscosity term tends to zero.     

Analysis of a Class of Frictional Contact Problems for the Bingham Fluid

We consider a mathematical model which describes the stationary flow of a Bingham fluid with friction. The frictional contact is modeled by a general velocity dependent dissipation functional. We derive a weak formulation of the model which consists in a variational inequality for the velocity field. We establish the existence and uniqueness of the weak solution as well as its continuous dependence with respect to the contact condition. Finally, we describe a number of concrete friction conditions which may be set in this general framework and for which our results apply.     

A normal compliance contact problem in viscoelasticity: An a posteriori error analysis and computational experiments

In this work, the numerical approximation of a viscoelastic contact problem is studied. The classical Kelvin-Voigt constitutive law is employed, and contact is assumed with a deformable obstacle and modelled using the normal compliance condition. The variational formulation leads to a nonlinear parabolic variational equation. An existence and uniqueness result is recalled. Then, a fully discrete scheme is introduced, by using the finite element method to approximate the spatial variable and the implicit Euler scheme to discretize time derivatives. A priori error estimates recently proved for this problem are recalled. Then, an a posteriori error analysis is provided, extending some preliminary results obtained in the study of the heat equation and other parabolic equations. Upper and lower error bounds are proved. Finally, some numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and the numerical behaviour of the error estimates.     

The solvability of a coupled thermoviscoelastic contact problem with small Coulomb friction and linearized growth of frictional heat

A coupled thermoviscoelastic frictional contact problem is investigated. The contact is modelled by the Signorini condition for the displacement velocities and the friction by the Coulomb law. The heat generated by friction is described by a non‐linear boundary condition with at most linear growth. The weak formulation of the problem consists of a variational inequality for the elasticity part and a variational equation for the heat conduction part. In order to prove the existence of a solution to this problem we first use an approximation of the Signorini condition by the penalty method. The existence of a solution for the approximate problem is shown using the fixed‐point theorem of Schauder. This theorem is applied to the composition of the solution operator for the contact problem with given temperature field and the solution operator for the heat equation problem with known displacement field. To obtain this proof, the unique solvability of both problems is necessary. Due to this reason it is necessary to introduce the penalty method. While the penalized contact problem has a unique solution, this is not clear for the original contact problem. The solvability of the original frictional contact problem is verified by an investigation of the limit for vanishing penalty parameter. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Stress formulation for frictionless contact of an elastic-perfectly-plastic body

A mathematical model for frictionless contact of a deformable body with a rigid moving obstacle is analyzed. The Prandtl–Reuss elastic-perfectly-plastic constitutive law is used to describe the material's behavior, and contact is modeled with a unilateral condition imposed on the surface velocity. The problem is motivated by the process of the plowing of the ground. A variational formulation of the problem is derived in terms of the stresses and the existence of the unique weak solution is proven. The proof is based on arguments for differential inclusions obtained in A. Amassad, M. Shillor and M. Sofonea (2001). A quasistatic contact problem for an elastic perfectly plastic body with Tresca's friction. Nonlin. Anal., 35, 95–109. Finally, a study of the continuous dependence of the solution on the data is presented.     

A frictional contact problem with normal damped response for elastic-visco-plastic materials

We study an evolution problem which describes the dynamic contact of an elastic-visco-plastic body with a foundation. We model the contact with normal damped response and a local friction law. A damage of the material caused by elastic deformation is taken into account, its evolution is described by an inclusion of parabolic type. We derive variational formulation for the model which is in the form of a system involving the displacement field, the stress field and the damage field. We prove the existence and uniqueness result of the weak solution. The proof is based on arguments of evolution equations with monotone operators, a classical existence and uniqueness result on parabolic inequalities and fixed point.     

Variational approach to contact problems in nonlinear elasticity

We use variational methods to study problems in nonlinear 3-dimensional elasticity where the deformation of the elastic body is restricted by a rigid obstacle. For an assigned variational problem we first verify the existence of constrained minimizers whereby we extend previous results. Then we rigorously derive the Euler-Lagrange equation as necessary condition for minimizers, which was possible before only under strong smoothness assumptions on the solution. The Lagrange multiplier corresponding to the obstacle constraint provides structural information about the nature of frictionless contact. In the case of contact with, e.g., a corner of the obstacle, we derive a qualitatively new contact condition taking into account the deformed shape of the elastic body. By our analysis it is shown here for the first time rigorously that energy minimizers really solve the mechanical contact problem. Received: 20 October 2000 / Accepted: 7 June 2001 / Published online: 5 September 2002     

Analysis of an elasto-piezoelectric system of hemivariational inequalities with thermal effects

In this paper we prove the existence and uniqueness of a weak solution for a dynamic electo-viscoelastic problem that describes a contact between a body and a foundation. We assume the body is made from thermoviscoelastic material and consider nonmonotone boundary conditions for the contact. We use recent results from the theory of hemivariational inequalities and the fixed point theory.     

Numerical analysis of dynamic thermoviscoelastic contact with damage of a rod

We describe and analyse a model for a problem of thermoviscoelasticdynamic contact which allows for the general evolution of thematerial damage. The effects on the mechanical properties ofthe material due to crack expansion are described by a damagefield, which measures the decrease in the load-bearing capacityof the material. The damage process is assumed to be reversibleand the microcracks which develop as a result of tension orcompression may grow or disappear. The geometric setting isthat of a 1D rod which may contact a deformable obstacle. Thecontact is modelled by the normal compliance condition and thestress–strain constitutive equation is of Kelvin–Voigttype. The model consists of a coupled system of energy–elasticityequations together with a non-linear parabolic inclusion forthe damage field. The existence of a local weak solution isestablished using penalization, a finite element algorithm forthe solution is constructed and analysed and the results ofnumerical simulations based on this algorithm are presented.The simulations illustrate how the size of the normal compliancecoefficients, the damage rate coefficients and the applied forceaffect the character of the evolution of the damage. In particular,cycles of bonding and debonding can occur.     

Some problems in nonlinear magnetoelasticity

In this paper we examine the influence of magnetic fields on the static response of magnetoelastic materials, such as magneto-sensitive elastomers, that are capable of large deformations. The analysis is based on a simple formulation of the mechanical equilibrium equations and constitutive law for such materials developed recently by the authors, coupled with the governing magnetic field equations. The equations are applied in the solution of some simple representative and illustrative problems, with the focus on incompressible materials. First, we consider the pure homogeneous deformation of a slab of material in the presence of a magnetic field normal to its faces. This is followed by a review of the problem of simple shear of the slab in the presence of the same magnetic field. Next we examine a problem involving non-homogeneous deformations, namely the extension and inflation of a circular cylindrical tube. In this problem the magnetic field is taken to be either axial (a uniform field) or circumferential. For each problem we give a general formulation for the case of an isotropic magnetoelastic constitutive law, and then, for illustration, specific results are derived for a prototype constitutive law. We emphasize that in general there are significant differences in the results for formulations in which the magnetic field or the magnetic induction is taken as the independent magnetic variable. This is demonstrated for one particular problem, in which restrictions are placed on the admissible class of constitutive laws if the magnetic induction is the independent variable but no restrictions if the magnetic field is the independent variable.Received: May 17, 2004