The Gevrey class of the Euler-Bernoulli beam model (Q2235923)

In this article, the authors consider the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation with two components: the first one is an elastic material without any dissipative mechanism, and the second one is a viscoelastic material of Kelvin-Voigt type. The corresponding equation is as follows: \[ \begin{cases} \rho(x)u_{tt}+(\alpha(x)u_{xx}+\alpha_0(x)u_{txx})_{xx}=0&\text{in }(0,l_0)\cup(l_0,l)\times(0,T)\\ u(0,t)=u_x(0,t)=u(l,t)=u_x(l,t)=0\\ u(x,0)=u_0(x),\ u_t(x,0)=u_1(x) \end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \begin{align*} \rho(x)&=\begin{cases} \rho_1&\text{if }x\in(0,l_0)\\ \rho_2&\text{if }x\in(l_0,l) \end{cases} \\ \alpha(x)&=\begin{cases} \alpha_1&\text{if }x\in(0,l_0)\\ \alpha_2&\text{if }x\in(l_0,l) \end{cases} \quad \alpha_0(x)=\begin{cases} 0&\text{if }x\in(0,l_0)\\ \alpha_0&\text{if }x\in(l_0,l) \end{cases} \end{align*} and \(\rho_1\), \(\rho_2\), \(\alpha_0\), \(\alpha_1\) and \(\alpha_2\) are positive constants. This equation has already been studied by several authors under more or less restrictive assumptions. \textit{I. Lasiecka} [J. Differ. Equations 95, No. 1, 169--182 (1992; Zbl 0757.35057)] considers the Euler-Bernoulli model with boundary dissipation effective only at the moment and proved the exponential stability of the corresponding semigroup. \textit{S. Chen} et al. [SIAM J. Appl. Math. 59, No. 2, 651--668 (1999; Zbl 0924.35018)] proved that the semigroup associated with the Euler-Bernoulli beam model with global viscoelastic damping is analytic and exponentially stable. \textit{K. Liu} and \textit{Z. Liu} [SIAM J. Control Optim. 36, No. 3, 1086--1098 (1998; Zbl 0909.35018)] consider localized viscoelastic damping and showed that the corresponding semigroup is exponentially stable but not analytic. \textit{B. Belinskiy} and \textit{I. Lasiecka} [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 332, No. 1, 137--154 (2007; Zbl 1120.35029)] consider the Euler-Bernoulli model with non-dissipative boundary condition of the type \(u_{xx}(l) = -\kappa u_{xt}(l)\) and proved that the corresponding semigroup is of Gevrey regularity order \(\delta > 2\). In the present paper, the main contribution of the authors is to prove that the semigroup associated with the general equation (1) is of Gevrey regularity of order \(\delta>8\).