A variational inequality approach to thermoviscoelasticity with monotone unilateral boundaries of kinematical and thermal type (Q1882467)

The authors deal with a class of unilateral problems arising in the dynamic theory of deformable bodies made of thermoviscoelastic materials with long memory. The bodies are subjected to boundary conditions of subdifferential type between the velocity and stress vector and/or between the temperature and heat flux vector. The dynamic behaviour of the body under consideration is described by the equations of motion and of energy \[ \rho \ddot u_i=\sigma_{ij,j}+f_i,\qquad \rho\theta_0\dot\eta+q_{i,i}=\rho r. \] The constitutive equations for the stress tensor \(\sigma\), the specific entropy \(\eta\) and the heat flux vector have the form \[ \sigma_{ij}(t)=C_{ijkl}(0)\varepsilon_{kl}(t)+m_{ij}(0)\theta(t)+ \int_0^t \dot m_{ij}(t-s)\theta(s)\,ds, \] \[ \rho\theta_0\eta(t)=c(0)\theta(t)-m_{ij}(0)\varepsilon_{ij}(t)+ \int_0^t \dot c(t-s)\theta (s)\,ds- \int_0^t \dot m_{ij}(t-s)\varepsilon_{ij}(s)\,ds, \] \(q_i=-k_{ij}\theta,_j,\;\varepsilon_{ij}=\frac12 (u_{i,j}+u_{j,i}).\) The following initial and boundary conditions are assumed: \[ u_i(x,0)=u_{0,i}(x),\;\dot u_i(x,0)=u_{1,i}(x),\;\theta(x,0)=\hat\theta(x)\;\text{ in } \Omega, \] \[ u_i=U_i\;\text{on}\;\Gamma_U,\;\{-\sigma_{ij}n_j\}\in \partial j(\dot u)\;\text{ on } \Gamma_S,\;\theta=\hat\theta\;\text{ on} \;\Gamma, \] or \[ u_i=0\;\text{ on } \Gamma,\;q_in_i\in \partial\phi(\theta)\;\text{on}\;\Gamma. \] More general boundary conditions \(u_i=U_i\;\text{ on } \Gamma_U,\quad \{-\sigma_{ij}n_j\}\in \partial j(\dot u)\;\text{on } \Gamma_S,\quad q_in_i\in \partial \phi(\theta)\;\text{ on}\;\Gamma\) are studied, too. Variational formulations in the form of variational inequalities are derived. The existence and uniqueness of solutions of the resulting variational inequalities are proved.