Analysis of a temperature-dependent model for adhesive contact with friction

Abstract: We propose a model for unilateral contact with adhesion between a viscoelastic body and a rigid support, encompassing thermal and frictional effects. Following the approach by M. Fremond, adhesion is described in terms of a surface damage parameter. The main result of the paper states the existence of global solutions to the associated Cauchy problem. It is proved by passing to the limit in a carefully tailored approximate problem, via variational techniques.