No label defined (Q3972492)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0707.00027.] In their survey article on Saint-Venant's principle, \textit{C. O. Horgan} and \textit{J. Knowles} [Adv. Appl. Mech. 23, 179-269 (1983; Zbl 0569.73010)] point out the paucity of Saint-Venant type results for the equations of elastodynamics. It is clear, of course, that if the energy of the system is conserved we cannot expect the exponential spatial decay characteristic of elliptic and parabolic problems. Recently (*) \textit{J. N. Flavin} and \textit{R. J. Knops} [J. Elasticity 17, 249-264 (1987; Zbl 0624.73012)] in treating special types of periodic end loadings on a linear elastic beam succeeded in establishing exponential spatial decay results for the 'steady-state' displacement field. Additional results along these lines are given by (**) the authors [Q. Appl. Math. 47, No. 2, 325-350 (1989; Zbl 0706.73015)]. In each of these papers the authors derived spatial estimates which were meaningful for large times, but inapplicable for general values of time \(t\). It is this feature that we here endeavour to remedy. The present investigations yield inequalities which provide meaningful bounds at all times for the energy contained in that part of the beam whose minimum distance from the loaded end is \(z\). The estimates depend upon \(z\) but are independent of \(t\). The results are derived in the context of nonlinear elastodynamics and are specialized to linear homogeneous anisotropic elastodynamics. This section also considers the special problem in linear homogeneous isotropic elasticity in which the end \(z=0\) is subjected to periodic displacement. In this case explicit bounds for the energy in the portion of the beam at distance greater than \(z\) from the loaded end are derived for arbitrary \(z\) and \(t\) using the arguments of (*) and (**). Finally, similar results are derived for the case of more general prescribed displacement on the end of the beam. However, the first method where applicable gives much sharper results for fixed \(z\) and large \(t\).