Convergence of solutions to inverse problems for a class of variational-hemivariational inequalities

The paper investigates an inverse problem for a stationary variational-hemivariational inequality. The solution of the variational-hemivariational inequality is approximated by its penalized version. We prove existence of solutions to inverse problems for both the initial inequality problem and the penalized problem. We show that optimal solutions to the inverse problem for the penalized problem converge, up to a subsequence, when the penalty parameter tends to zero, to an optimal solution of the inverse problem for the initial variational-hemivariational inequality. The results are illustrated by a mathematical model of a nonsmooth contact problem from elasticity