Nonexistence of global solutions to nonlinear wave equations (Q4357089)

This paper is a short and clear review of the author's version of the method of differential inequalities for proving finite-time blow-up in nonlinear wave equations, with or without damping terms. The main ideas go back to his paper with \textit{O. A. Ladyzhenskaya} [Zap. Nauchn. Semin. LOMI 69, 77-102 (1977; Zbl 0354.35054); English translation in J. Sov. Math. 10, 53-70 (1978)], where a modification of H. Levine's well-known method is presented. After stating and proving an abstract version, the author gives applications to (a) a one-dimensional wave equation with damping terms, on a bounded interval; (b) equations from thermoelasticity; (c) a `pseudo-hyperbolic' problem where the Laplacian is applied to the second-order time derivative. One should add that much more recently, \textit{V. Georgiev} and \textit{G. Todorova} have given blow-up theorems for equations with damping terms [J. Differ. Equations 109, 295-308 (1994; Zbl 0803.35092)], which have been generalized in abstract form by \textit{H. A. Levine} and \textit{J. Serrin} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 137, 341-361 (1997; Zbl 0886.35096)]. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0873.00029].