Transient response of elastic bodies connected by a thin stiff viscoelastic layer with evanescent mass

We extend the study [1] devoted to the dynamic response of a structure made up of two linearly elastic bodies connected by a thin soft adhesive layer made of a Kelvin–Voigt-type nonlinear viscoelastic material to the cases of stiff and very stiff adhesives whose mass vanishes. We use a nonlinear extension of Trotter's theory of convergence of semi-groups of operators acting on variable spaces to identify the asymptotic behavior of the mechanical state of the system, when some geometrical and mechanical parameters tend to their natural limits. The models we obtain describe the behavior of a structure consisting of two linearly elastic adherents perfectly bonded to a material deformable flat surface whose behavior is of the same kind as that of the genuine adhesive.