Time-periodic oscillations in suspension bridges: Existence of unique solutions (Q5933575)

This paper deals with the nonlinear oscillation theory for suspension bridges establishes by \textit{A. C. Lazer} and \textit{P. J. McKenna} in [V. Lakshmikantham (ed.), World congress of nonlinear analysts '92. Proceedings of the first world congress, Tampa, FL, USA, August 19-26, 1992. 4 volumes. Berlin: de Gruyter, 349--358 (1996; Zbl 0847.34024)]. The present authors consider the boundary value problem \((*)\) \(u_{tt}+ \alpha^2 u_{xxxx}+\beta u_t=- ku^++ W(x)+ f(x,t)\) in \((0,\pi)\times \mathbb{R}\) with \(u= u_{xx}= 0\) for \(x=0\), \(\pi\) and \(u(x,t+ 2\pi)= u(x,t)\) (\(u\), \(x\), \(t\) are scaled). It is assumed that the weight per unit length \(W(x)= W_0> 0\) is independent of \(x\), and \(f(x,t)\) is periodic in \(t\). The main result states that for \(\beta, k>0\) there is \(\varepsilon= \varepsilon(\alpha, \beta, W_0,k)> 0\) such that problem \((*)\) with \(\|f\|<\varepsilon\) has a unique solution, and actually the solution is positive and \((*)\) is a well-posed problem; \(\|\cdot\|\) is the norm in \(H^{1,1}\). Let us remark that in the case \(W(x)= c\sin x\) (not realistic), \(f(x,t)= \varepsilon f(t)\sin x\) the problem reduces to the boundary value problem for an ordinary differential equation which has been studied by several authors; for \(\varepsilon\) small and bounds on \(k\) there exist at least two solutions. There is existence given for \(W(x)= W_0\) and \(\beta= 0\). Interesting in the present result is that there is no bound on \(k> 0\), and uniqueness holds if \(\beta> 0\) (damping).