Global existence for a delay differential equation

An elastic-plastic bar with simply connected cross section Q is clamped at the bottom and given a twist at the top. The stress function u, at a prescribed cross section, is then the solution of the variational inequality (0.1) $\text{min}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>v</mtext><mtext>?</mtext><mtext>K</mtext>}}\text{{∝}{}_{\mathrm{Q}}\text{¦}\text{▽}\text{v¦}{}^2\text{? 2θ}{}_1\text{∝}{}_{\mathrm{Q}}\text{v} = ∝}{}_{\mathrm{Q}}\text{¦}\text{▽}\text{u¦}{}^2\text{? 2θ}{}_1\text{∝}{}_{\mathrm{Q}}\text{u, u}\text{?}\text{K,}\text{where}\text{(0.2) K = {v}\text{?}\text{H}{}_0{}^1\text{(Q), ¦}\text{▽}\text{v¦ ? 1}\text{a.e.}\text{}}\text{and}\text{θ}{}_1$ is equal to the angle of the twist (after normalizing the units). Introducing the Lagrange multiplier λ_θ1, the unloading problem consists in solving the variational inequality (0.3) is the twisting angle for the unloaded bar; θ₂ < θ₁. Let (0.4) $\text{K}{}^1\text{= {v}\text{?}\text{H}{}_0{}^1\text{(Q), ?d(x) ? v(x) ? d(x)},}\text{where}\text{d(x) =}\text{dist}\text{.(x, ?Q)}$, and denote by $\text{u}{}^1\text{, w}{}^1$ the solutions of (0.1), (0.3), respectively, when K is replaced by $\text{K}{}^1$. The following results are well known for the loading problem (0.1):(0.5) $\text{u = u}{}^1$; (0.6) the plastic set $\text{P = (X}\text{?}\text{Q}\text{?}\text{; ¦}\text{▽}\text{u(x)¦ = 1}}$ is connected to the boundary. In this paper we show that, in general, (0.7) $\text{w ≠ w}{}^1$; (0.8) the plastic set $\text{P}\text{?}\text{= {x}\text{?}\text{Q}\text{?}\text{; ¦}\text{▽}\text{w(x)¦ = 1}}$ is not connected to the boundary. That is, we construct domains Q for which (0.7) and (0.8) hold for a suitable choice of θ₁, θ₂.