We consider a quasistatic contact problem between two viscoelastic bodies with long-term memory and damage. The contact is bilateral and the tangential shear due to the bonding field is included. The adhesion of the contact surfaces is taken into account and modelled by a surface variable, the bonding field. We prove the existence of a unique weak solution to the problem. The proof is based on arguments of time-dependent variational inequalities, parabolic inequalities, differential equations and fixed point.

This paper deals with the study of a mathematical model which describes the bilateral, frictionless adhesive contact between two viscoelastic bodies with damage. The adhesion of the contact surfaces is considered and is modeled with a surface variable, the bonding field, whose evolution is described by a first order differential equation. We establish a variational formulation for the problem and prove the existence and uniqueness result of the solution. The proofs are based on time-dependent variational equalities, a classical existence and uniqueness result on parabolic equations, differential equations, and fixed-point arguments.