We study the frictional contact between an elasto-piezoelectric body and a rigid foundation. Our study is based on a non-symmetric mixed variational formulation involving dual Lagrange multipliers. Using a fixed point technique and the saddle point framework, we verify the well-posedness of the variational problem. Furthermore, we provide optimal a priori error estimates for the displacements, the electric potential and the stress at the contact interface. The results also hold in the multibody case with nonconforming meshes at the contact interface. For this situation a numerical example is given.

Key Words: Frictional contact, dual Lagrange multipliers, mixed formulation, well-posedness, optimal a priori error estimate.

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 65N15, 65N30, 65N55, 74M10, 74M15,
Secondary: 49J35, 49J40, 65K10.