Kt. Andrews et al., ON THE DYNAMIC VIBRATIONS OF AN ELASTIC BEAM IN FRICTIONAL CONTACT WITH A RIGID OBSTACLE, Journal of elasticity, 42(1), 1996, pp. 1-30
Existence and uniqueness results are established for weak formulations
of initial-boundary value problems which model the dynamic behavior o
f an Euler-Bernoulli beam that may come into frictional contact with a
stationary obstacle. The beam is assumed to be situated horizontally
and may move both horizontally and vertically, as a result of applied
loads. One end of the beam is clamped, while the other end is free. Ho
wever, the horizontal motion of the free end is restricted by the pres
ence of a stationary obstacle and when this end contacts the obstacle,
the vertical motion of the end is assumed to be affected by friction.
The contact and friction at this end is modelled in two different way
s. The first involves the classic Signorini unilateral or nonpenetrati
on conditions and Coulomb's law of dry friction; the second uses a nor
mal compliance contact condition and a corresponding generalization of
Coulomb's law. In both cases existence and uniqueness are established
when the beam is subject to Kelvin-Voigt damping. In the absence of d
amping, existence of a solution is established for a problem in which
the normal contact stress is regularized.