The exponential stabilization of the higher-dimensional linear system of thermoviscoelasticity (Q1128315)

The author studies the exponential decay of solutions to the linear system of thermoviscoelasticity: \(u'' - \mu \Delta u -(\lambda+\mu)\nabla \text{div }u +\mu g*\Delta u +(\lambda+\mu)g*\nabla\text{div }u +\alpha\nabla\theta=0\), \(\theta' - \Delta \theta +\beta \text{div } u' =0\) subject to initial and Dirichlet boundary conditions. The assumptions made on the relaxation function \(g\) are standard and they imply that the static modulus is positive. The main result of this paper is to prove that the energy functional \(E(u,\theta,t)\) decays exponentially as \(t\to\infty\). It is known that in the higher-dimensional case the energy functional defined as \(E(u,\theta,t)={1\over 2} (\| u'(t)\|_2^2 +{\alpha\over \beta}\| \theta(t)\|_2^2 +\mu \| \nabla u(t)\|_2^2 +(\lambda+\mu) \| \text{div }u(t)\|_2^2)\), in general, does not tend to zero. In order to increase the loss of energy and subsequently to ensure the exponential decay of solutions the author introduces a boundary velocity feedback on a part of the boundary of a thermoviscoelastic body, which is clamped along the rest of its boundary.