Homogenization of a hyperbolic equation with highly contrasting diffusivity coefficients. (Q265172)

The paper concerns the homogenization of high contrast spatially periodic hyperbolic problems. Let \(\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n\) be a bounded domain. The soft part, \(B_\varepsilon\), of \(\Omega\) consists of \(\varepsilon\)-periodically distributed balls of radius \(\varepsilon r\), \(r\in (0,1/2)\), while the shift part is \(M_\varepsilon=\Omega\setminus B_\varepsilon\). On the domain \(\Omega\) the authors consider the Dirichlet initial-boundary value problem for the equation \[ u''_\varepsilon- \text{div}(a_\varepsilon(x)A(x,\varepsilon^{-1}x)\nabla u_\varepsilon)+u_\varepsilon=f_\varepsilon\,, \] where \(A(x,y)\) is a symmetric uniformly elliptic matrix, which is 1-periodic with respect to \(y\), and \(a_\varepsilon=\alpha^2_\varepsilon\chi_{B_\varepsilon}+\chi_{M_\varepsilon}\), \(\alpha_\varepsilon>0\) and \(\alpha_\varepsilon\to 0\) as \(\varepsilon\to 0\). Here \(\chi_S\) stands for the characteristic function of a set \(S\). To obtain the homogenized problem the two-scale convergence is employed. The form of the homogenized equation depends on whether \(\alpha=0\), \(\alpha=+\infty\), or \(0<\alpha<+\infty\), where \(\alpha=\lim\varepsilon^{-1}\alpha_\varepsilon\). In the third, critical case the homogenized problem is a coupled system that involves both macroscopic and microscopic variables.