Modelling contact problems with friction in fault mechanics (Q2765990)

The main purpose is to describe various friction models which can be used in geophysics, especially in the presence of faults. This is of course of interest when considering earthquakes. The authors first present a detailed bibliography of the models which have already been developed, and specially focus on Ruina's model and its further extensions. The friction laws which are considered are fully described. Then the authors study a model which is described by a quasi-static initial-boundary value problem and which involves a fault considered as a contact surface between two anisotropic and elastic materials. The authors write the corresponding evolution variational inequality and introduce the associated Green function through the dual problem. The last part of the paper deals with a special antiplane situation. The authors quote from earlier works the corresponding Green function, and present a full discretization of the problem.