Existence of a solution of the problem of nonlinear elasticity with non-classical boundary conditions, when the relationship between the corresponding dual quantities is given in terms of a nonmonotone and generally multivalued relation. The mathematical formulation leads to a problem of non-smooth and nonconvex optimization, and in its weak form to hemivariational inequalities and to the determination of the so called substationary points of the given potential.

Solvability of the general boundary value problem for von Kármán system of nonlinear equations is studied. The problem is reduced to an operator equation. It is shown that the corresponding functional of energy is coercive and weakly lower semicontinuous. Then the functional of energy attains absolute minimum which is a variational solution of the problem.