Mixed problem of plane orthotropic elasticity in a half-plane (Q311218)

In the Elasticity Theory there is an interesting problem known as the mixed problem for the Laplace equation, that is, to find a harmonic function \(u\in C(\overline{D})\cap C^1(\overline{D}\setminus I^0)\) satisfying the boundary conditions \(u^{+}|_{I^0}=f^0\) and \(\partial u/\partial y\arrowvert_{I^1}=g^1\), where \(I^0\) is the union of \(m\) closed subintervals \(I_{j}^{0}\) (\(j=1,\ldots m\)), \(D\) is the upper half-plane with a boundary \(\mathbb{R}\), \(F\) is some set of finite number of points, \(I^1\) is the comment of \(I^0\setminus F\), and \(f^0\), \(g^1\) are continuous functions. For the conjugate harmonic function \(v\), the boundary conditions have the form: \(u^{+}|_{I^0}=f^0\) and \(v^{+}|_{I^1}=\chi +f^1\), where \(f^1\) is primitive (antiderivative) of \(-g^1\), and \(\chi \) is a piecewise constant function. The mixed problem that is the main object of the present study is to find a solution \(u=(u_1,u_2)\) in the Hölder class to the system \[ (\ast ) \;\;\;\;a_{11}\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial x^2}+(a_{12}+a_{21}) \frac{\partial^2u}{\partial x\partial y}+a_{22}\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial y^2}=0 \] (Lamé system for the orthotropic medium), where \(a_{11}, a_{22}, a_{12}, a_{21}\) are \(2\times 2\) matrices with entries \(\equiv \) the elasticity moduli. The boundary conditions to the considered problem have the form \[ (\ast\ast ) \;\;\;\;u^{+}|_{I^0}=f^0 \;\;\text{and} \;\;v^{+}|_{I^1}=\chi +f^1. \] It turns out that the characteristic equation of (\(\ast \)) has no real roots. The main result is that the above stated problem (\(\ast \)), (\(\ast\ast \)) has a unique solution in the Hölder class \(H(\overline{D})\), and this solution \(u(z)\) (\(z\in D\)) can be written in explicit form, which is similar to the known Keldysh-Sedov formula on the half-plane. The existence and uniqueness of the solution is proved very precisely through the methods of the Complex Analysis, as for this purpose several auxiliary statements along with the Riemann-Hilbert problem are used in an original way. Note that in the English translated paper the second summand \(\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial y\partial y}\) in (\(\ast \)) is written wrong instead of \(\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial x\partial y}\), that is probably a technical error. Also note that the citation to the above stated formula (\(\ast \)), [\textit{S. G. Lekhnitskiĭ}, Theory of elasticity of an anisotropic body. Transl. from the rev. 1977 Russian ed. Moscow: Mir Publishers (1981; Zbl 0467.73011)] and [\textit{V. D. Kupradze}, Potentialmethoden in der Elastizitätstheorie (Russian). Moskau: Staatsverlag für physikalisch-mathematische Literatur (1963; Zbl 0115.18702)] is a bit vague. Here the author has not proved the formula (\(\ast \)).