Abstract
So-called generalized standard solids (of the Halphen-Nguyen type) involving also activated rate-independent processes such as plasticity, damage, or phase transformations, are described as a system of a momentum equilibrium equation and a variational inequality for inelastic evolution of internal-parameter variables. The stored energy is considered as temperature dependent and then the thermodynamically consistent system is completed with the heat-transfer equation.
Existence of a suitably defined ``energetic'' solution is proved by a nontrivial combination of theory of rate-independent processes by Mielke at al. adapted for coupling with viscous/inertial effects and of sophisticated estimates by Boccardo and Gallouet of the temperature gradient of the heat equation with L1-data. Illustrative examples are presented, too.