A nonlocal and fully nonlinear degenerate parabolic system from strain-gradient plasticity (Q628779)

The authors study a system of partial differential equations which describes anti-plane shear arising in a strain-gradient theory of plasticity proposed by \textit{M. E. Gurtin} in [J. Mech. Phys. Solids 52, No. 11, 2545--2568 (2004; Zbl 1084.74008)]. In dimensionless variables it reads as follows: \[ \begin{aligned} |d|^{m-1}(\pmb\gamma + \pmb\nu)_t &= \varepsilon^2(-{\mathbf{\text{cur}l}}^2\pmb\gamma + \Delta\pmb\nu) + 2(\nabla\, u - \pmb\gamma - \pmb\nu)\\ \chi|d|^{m-1}(\pmb\gamma - \pmb\nu)_t &= \varepsilon^2(-\mathbf{curl}^2\pmb\gamma - \Delta\pmb\nu)\\ \Delta u &= \text{div}(\pmb\gamma + \pmb\nu). \end{aligned} \] The unknowns are \(\pmb\gamma(t,x) \in\mathbb R^2\), \(\pmb\nu(t,x) \in\mathbb R^2\) and \(u(t,x) \in\mathbb R\), defined for \((t,x) \in(0,\infty)\times\Omega\), where \(\Omega \subset\mathbb R^2\). Here \(\varepsilon > 0\), \(\chi > 0\), and \(m \in (0,1)\) are dimensionless parameters, \(d = \sqrt{1/2|(\pmb\gamma_t + \pmb\nu_t)|^2 + \chi/2|(\pmb\gamma_t - \pmb\nu_t)|^2}\). It features two types of degeneracies: the first is caused by the nonlinear structure, the second one by the dependence of the principal part on twice the curl of a planar vector field. It is assumed that \(\Omega\) is an open, bounded, connected and simply connected domain of class \(C^{0,1}\); \(\partial\Omega\) is such that \(\partial\Omega = \overline{\partial_H\Omega}\cap\overline{\partial_F\Omega}\) and \(\partial_H\Omega\cap\partial_F\Omega = \emptyset\); if \(\partial_H\Omega \neq \emptyset\) and \(\partial_F\Omega \neq \emptyset\), both \(\partial_H\Omega\) and \(\partial_F\Omega\) consist of a finite number of smooth connected components, each of them having positive length and positive distance from the others. The system is complemented by the following boundary conditions: \[ \begin{aligned} \text{curl}\,\pmb\gamma= 0, \quad \nabla\,\pmb\nu\cdot \mathbf n= 0, \quad \pmb\tau\cdot \mathbf n = 0, &\quad \text{on } (0,\infty)\times \partial_F\Omega,\\ \pmb\gamma_t\cdot \mathbf t =0, \quad \pmb\nu_t = 0 \quad u \overset{*}= u_H, &\quad \text{on } (0,\infty)\times \partial_H\Omega. \end{aligned} \] The symbol \(\overset{*}=\) means that if a Dirichlet boundary condition is required on an empty set, then it is replaced by the normalized zero-mean condition. Here \(\mathbf n\) is the outward init normal, \(\mathbf t = \mathbf e_3\times \mathbf n\) is the unit tangent vector on \(\partial\Omega\) and \(u_H\) is a time-independent boundary datum. The initial conditions are \(\pmb\gamma = \pmb\gamma_0\), \(\pmb\nu = \pmb\nu_0\) on \(\{0\}\times\Omega\). The aim of this paper is to prove the existence and uniqueness of a solution to the above-mentioned problem. To get this result, the authors use a suitable, time-independent representation of a divergence-free vector field, and then the original problem is transformed into one satisfying a monotonicity property which is more robust than the gradient flow structure inherited as an intrinsic feature of the mechanical model.