Tykhonov well-posedness of a mixed variational problem

Abstract

ABSTRACT We consider a mixed variational problem governed by a nonlinear operator and a set of constraints. Existence, uniqueness and convergence results for this problem have already been obtained in the literature. In this current paper we complete these results by proving the well-posedness of the problem, in the sense of Tykhonov. To this end we introduce a family of approximating problems for which we state and prove various equivalence and convergence results. We illustrate these abstract results in the study of a frictionless contact model with elastic materials. The process is assumed to be static and the contact is with unilateral constraints. We derive a weak formulation of the model which is in the form of a mixed variational problem with unknowns being the displacement field and the Lagrange multiplier. Then, we prove various results on the corresponding mixed problem, including its well-posedness in the sense of Tykhonov, under various assumptions on the data. Finally, we provide mechanical interpretation of our results.