Existence and uniqueness for rate problems of geomechanics

ABSTRACT In spite of their currency, numerical simulations of geotechnical problems can turn out to be quite delicate due to the strong non linearities of the involved boundary value problems. Often, difficulties arise from bad mathematical properties of the studied problem. In this paper are presented the tools that enable to study mathematically the rate boundary value problems intervening in geomechanics, in particular, the monotonicity and coercivity which guarantee the existence and uniqueness of the solution of these problems. Moreover, for elastoplastic and hypoplastic constitutive behaviours, the equivalence between these conditions and the positivity of the seond order work is studied.