Thermodynamics and analysis of rate-independent adhesive contact at small strains (Q534458)

The authors consider an adhesive frictionless Signorini-type contact problem between two heat-conductive linearly viscoelastic solids. A rate-independent irreversible evolution law is assumed at the contact surface and thermodynamic consistency is dualy addressed. The main result of the paper is the existence of a suitably weak solution to the nonlinear system of quasi-static equilibrium, energy conservation, and debonding (delamination) parameter evaluation. After a suitable enthalpy-type transformation the problem is addressed within the so-called energetic formulation by means of a regularization (penalization) of contact conditions and a semi-implicit time-discretization procdure. A crucial step is the estimation of the temperature of the body by means of the Boccardo and Gallovët technique.