Thermoelastic contact with Barber's heat exchange condition (Q2366882)

A one-dimensional quasistatic linearized thermoelastic system for a temperature \(\theta\) and a displacement \(u\) is considered, i.e. \(\Delta \theta = \partial (\theta + a \nabla u)/ \partial t\) and \(\Delta u = a \nabla \theta\) for \((x,t) \in (0,1) \times (0,T)\) with some coupling coefficient \(a>0\). While the Dirichlet boundary condition is prescribed at \(x=0\), at the other end (i.e. \(x=1)\) a Signorini contact condition for \(u\) is considered and a Barber condition for \(\theta\), i.e. the heat flux at \(x=1\) is to be equal to \(k(g - u(1,t) + \sigma (1,t)) \theta (1,t)\), where \(k(\cdot)\) is a heat-exchange coefficient depending both on the slot \(g - u \leq 0\) between the end point and the obstacle and on the normal stress \(\sigma = \nabla u - a \theta \leq 0\). This problem is then re-formulated in terms of the temperature only and existence of a unique strong (for regular data) or weak solution is demonstrated.