Stability and related results in linear elastodynamics on unbounded regions (Q1814298)

The paper is concerned with the uniqueness and continuous dependence of the solutions of the mixed boundary value problems of linearized anisotropic nonhomogeneous elasticity on unbounded regions. A notable feature of the analysis presented in the paper is the absence of the assumption of any prescribed spatial asymptotic behaviour of the solution. As such the treatment presented is different from the several other methods where the prescription of asymptotic behaviour, although under progressively weaker conditions, is essential. Such hypothesis has been abandoned by the authors and in its place an alternative postulate, prohibiting infinite speed of propagation, has been introduced. Thus disturbances imposed at large spatial distances cannot penetrate in to bounded regions within finite time and accordingly do not influence the solution in these regions. The propagation speeds are appropriately restricted by subjecting the acoustic tensor to a hyperbolicity condition. In nonhomogeneous bodies it corresponds to a stiffening of the elasticities at large spatial distance and for homogeneous bodies it is automatically satisfied. In addition it is also assumed that the elasticities are symmetric and uniform positive-definite. The regions on which the conclusions of the paper are valid are unbounded in the sense of having a non-compact boundary. Although several authors have established uniqueness in the displacement exterior problems in the absence of prescribed asymptotic behaviour, the treatment presented in the paper is more comprehensive and employs weaker assumptions. The main conclusion of this paper is concerned with the displacement boundary condition problem. It has been established under the condition of hyperbolicity that on the unbounded region the solution is stable globally in time with respect to uniform norm of the displacement, the \(L_ 2\)-norms of the initial displacement, and its second derivative and \(L_ 2\)-norm of the initial displacement, and its first derivatives, respectively. To demonstrate the universality of the present approach, in the seventh section of the paper, the hyperbolicity condition has been replaced by a more customery condition of specifying spatial asymptotic behaviours. Even in these circumstances, the essential arguments developed are valid and lead to the results on uniqueness and continuous dependence on data for the mixed problem. Since these results are subject to only comparatively weak restrictions on the asymptotic behaviour, they effectively generalize or complement several known results. Finally, in the last section the authors have shown how the theorems derived for the elastodynamic problem may be applied to establish uniqueness in the associated mixed boundary value problem of linearized elastostatics on unbounded regions in the class of solutions having certain prescribed asymptotic behaviour. Thus the final result links the results of the paper with the corresponding equilibrium problem which has been extensively discussed by many workers.