Existence and Uniqueness of Weak Solutions to Frictionless-Antiplane Contact Problems

Abstract: We investigate a quasi-static-antiplane contact problem, examining a thermo-electro-visco-elastic material with a friction law dependent on the slip rate, assuming that the foundation is electrically conductive. The mechanical problem is represented by a system of partial differential equations, and establishing its solution involves several key steps. Initially, we obtain a variational formulation of the model, which comprises three systems: a hemivariational inequality, an elliptic equation, and a parabolic equation. Subsequently, we demonstrate the existence of a unique weak solution to the model. The proof relies on various arguments, including those related to evolutionary inequalities, techniques for decoupling unknowns, and certain results from differential equations.