Nonlinear interaction of waves in elastodynamics and an inverse problem (Q2290819)

In this work, the authors consider nonlinear elastic wave equations generalizing Gol'dberg's five constants model, in which the five parameters \(\lambda\), \(\mu\), \(A\), \(B\) and \(C\) are smooth functions of \(\overline\Omega\), where \(\Omega\subseteq\mathbb{R}^3\) is a smooth bounded domain with connected boundary \(\partial\Omega\). The initial value problem that arises from this model is \[ \begin{array}{l}\frac{\partial^{2} u(t, x)}{\partial t^{2}}-\nabla \cdot S(x, u(t, x))=0, \quad(t, x) \in \mathbb{R} \times \Omega, \\ u(t, x)=f(t, x), \quad(t, x) \in \mathbb{R}_{+} \times \partial \Omega, \\ u(t, x)=0, \quad(t, x) \in \mathbb{R}_{-} \times \Omega,\end{array} \] where \(f\) is the boundary source and \(S\) is a suitable generalization of the stress tensor which takes into account the nonlinear effects. The problem above is a second order quasilinear system. The authors establish the well-posedness for small boundary data \(f\) and analyze the nonlinear interactions of two (distorted) plane waves and show that certain nonlinear responses are generated and they carry the information of the nonlinear parameters. Further, they study the inverse problem of determining the elastic parameters \(\lambda\), \(\mu\), \(A\), \(B\) and \(C\) from the displacement-to-traction map \[ \Lambda: f=\left.\left.u\right|_{\left[0, T_{0}\right] \times \partial \Omega} \rightarrow \nu \cdot S(x, u)\right|_{\left[0, T_{0}\right] \times \partial \Omega}, \] where \(T_0\) is the measuring time and \(\nu=\nu(x)\) is the exterior normal to \(\partial\Omega\).