Energy estimates in rate-type thermo-viscoplasticity (Q1271144)

The paper deals with the one-dimensional body, made of thermo-viscoplastic material, when stress, strain and absolute temperature are considered as state variables. The first and the second laws of thermodynamics are formulated in an appropriate form involving the rate of heat defined by a differential form via the specific heat at constant strain and the latent heat material functions. The quasilinear temperature rate-type equation describes the thermo-viscoplastic material. All constitutive functions are dependent on the state variables. When the constitutive functions are given such that the internal energy function and the entropy function satisfy the thermodynamic laws, the energy identity/inequality holds for all smooth solutions of the partial differential equations describing the state variables and the velocity field. Whenever the relative energy is bounded below by an appropriate temperature-dependent function or there is no heat supply, it is proved that the solutions of the initial and boundary value problems are bounded by the energy of the input data. Under the hypothesis of the existence of instantaneous elastic response in stress, in internal energy and in entropy, the author constructs the internal energy and the entropy satisfying the thermodynamic restrictions imposed on the material functions. Some additional assumptions on the relaxation function are formulated within the constitutive models in order to satisfy the restrictions related to relaxation effects. Explicit forms of thermodynamic potentials are also given for some particular models.