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

We address a model for adhesive unilateral frictionless Signorini-type contact between bodies of heat-conductive viscoelastic material, in the linear Kelvin–Voigt rheology, undergoing thermal expansion. The flow rule for debonding the adhesion is considered rate-independent and unidirectional, and a thermodynamically consistent model is derived and analysed as far as the existence of a weak solution is concerned.