On a system of nonlinear wave equations with Balakrishnan-Taylor damping (Q2449556)

The authors study the initial-boundary value problem with homogeneous Dirichlet conditions for a coupled system of nonlinear viscoelastic wave equations of Kirchhoff type with Balakrishnan-Taylor damping terms \[ \begin{aligned} & u_{tt}-(a+b\|\nabla u\|^2+\sigma\int_\Omega\nabla u\cdot\nabla u_t dx)\Delta u+\int_0^tg_1(t-s)\Delta u(s)ds=f_1(u,v),\\ & v_{tt}-(a+b\|\nabla v\|^2+\sigma\int_\Omega\nabla v\cdot\nabla v_t dx)\Delta v+\int_0^tg_2(t-s)\Delta v(s)ds=f_2(u,v), \end{aligned} \] in a bounded domain in \(\mathbb R^n\) with a smooth boundary. The above system can be regarded as a generalization of the Klein-Gordon system. They introduce the energy functional and for certain class of relaxation functions \(g_1,\;g_2\) prove that the decay rate of the energy is similar to that of relaxation functions which is not necessarily of exponential and polynomial type. In the end the blow up in finite time phenomena even in presence of stronger damping is investigated.