Limit of nonlinear Signorini problems for incompressible materials (Q6862702)

The paper is devoted to the linearization of the nonlinear Signorini functional in the incompressible case. In linear elastostatics, the classical Signorini problem, see [\textit{A. Signorini}, Rend. Mat. Appl., V. Ser. 18, 95--139 (1959; Zbl 0091.38006)], seeks the equilibrium of an elastic body subject to external forces and resting on a rigid support \(E \subset \partial\Omega\) in its reference configuration \(\Omega\). The authors show that, at least in the planar obstacle case, namely, when \(E \subset \partial\Omega \cap \{x \cdot e_3 = 0\} \neq \emptyset\), with \((e_i)_{i=1}^3\) the canonical basis of \(\mathbb{R}^3\), a variational convergence result, in the sense of \(\Gamma\)-convergence, holds for incompressible nonlinear energy densities. Namely, there exists a sequence of (suitably rescaled) functionals \(G^I_h\) such that \(\inf G_h^I\) converges to the minimum of the corresponding Signorini problem. To prove this result, the authors assume that \(\partial\Omega\) has a finite number of connected components and first show that sequences of deformations with equibounded energy correspond (up to suitably chosen rotations and translations of the horizontal components) to displacements that are equibounded in \(H^1\).