Singular perturbation by bending for an adhesive obstacle problem (Q262197)

Let \(\psi:[a,b]\to\mathbb R\) be a smooth function called an ``obstacle'' and \(\alpha:[a,b]\to (0,1)\) be a suitable continuous function. The paper deals with the obstacle problem \[ \underset{u\geq\psi}{\text{Minimize}}:E_\epsilon [u] =\epsilon^2\int \kappa^2 ds+\int ds-\int_{\{u=\psi\}} (1-\alpha) ds, \] where \(\kappa\), \(s\) denote the curvature and the arclength of the graph of \(u\). The author introduces suitable closed subsets \(X^{2,1}(a,b)\) and \(X^{1,1}(a,b)\) of \(W^{2,1}\) and \(W^{1,1}\), respectively (Definition (2.1)), and \(F_\epsilon :X^{1,1}(a,b)\to[0,\infty]\) defined by \[ F_\epsilon [u]=\epsilon\int_a^b\kappa^2_u\sqrt{1+u_x^2}\,dx+\frac{1}{\epsilon}(E_0[u]-\inf_{X^{1,1}} E_0) \] if \(u\in X^{2,1}(a,b),\) and \(F_\epsilon [u]=\infty\) otherwise, where \[ \kappa_u=\frac{u_{xx}}{(1+u_x^2)^\frac{3}{2}} \] is curvature. He shows that, as \(\epsilon\) goes to \(0\), \(F_\epsilon\) converges, in the sense of the De-Giorgi \(\Gamma\)-convergence, to \(F\) defined by \[ F[u]=\int_{\partial (a,b)_+^u} 4(\sqrt 2-\sqrt{1+\alpha}) d\mathcal{H}^0 \] if \(u\in\text{argmin}_{X^{1,1}} E_0\), and \(F[u] =\infty\) otherwise (Theorem 4.2). Here, \(\partial (a,b)_+^u= \partial \{u>\psi \}\cap (a,b),\) and, in \(\mathbb R^n\), \(\mathcal{H}^{n-1}\) denotes the \((n-1)\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure. Related problems are presented. The paper is illustrated with several figures.