A mathematical approach to the rock interface problem

In the present paper a method is presented for the analysis of rock interfa ce. The mechanical response of rock interface involves nonlinear unilateral phenomena as debonding and slip along the interface. Under the usual simpl ifying assumption of shear-normal stress decoupling, the problem has been s tudied in [1,2] by means of variational and hemivariational inequalities fo rmulations. This assumption is here dropped and the problem is formulated i n the form of a system of inequalities. Using Leray-Schauder degree theory together with regularization techniques based on mollifiers, we develop a m athematical theory applicable to the analysis of the aforementioned problem .