A new class of history-dependent variational–hemivariational inequalities was recently studied in Migórski et al. (2015Nonlinear Anal. Ser. B: Real World Appl.22, 604–618). There, an existence and uniqueness result was proved and used in the study of a mathematical model which describes the contact between a viscoelastic body and an obstacle. The aim of this paper is to continue the analysis of the inequalities introduced in Migórski et al. (2015Nonlinear Anal. Ser. B: Real World Appl.22, 604–618) and to provide their numerical analysis. We start with a continuous dependence result. Then we introduce numerical schemes to solve the inequalities and derive error estimates. We apply the results to a quasistatic frictional contact problem in which the material is modelled with a viscoelastic constitutive law, the contact is given in the form of normal compliance, and friction is described with a total slip-dependent version of Coulomb's law.

Continuous dependence upon the elastic moduli of the total energy, and consequently in appropriate measure of the stress, strain and displacement, is established in the initial boundary value problem defined on a semi-infinite cylinder occupied by a linear anisotropic compressible elastic material. Free, constrained and mixed boundary conditions on the lateral surface of the cylinder are discussed. The conclusions are obtained using differential inequalities and partly depend upon previously published results.