Asymptotics of viscoelastic materials with nonlinear density and memory effects (Q683475)

The nonlinear viscoelastic equation \[ |\partial_t u|^\rho \partial_{tt}u-\Delta \partial_{tt}u-\Delta u + \displaystyle\int_0^\infty \mu(s) \Delta u(t-s) \,ds + f(u) = h \] is considered in some bounded domain \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^3\) with \(0\leq \rho\leq 4\), where the nonnegative nonincreasing function \(\mu\) has finite total mass and models memory effects in the material, and the nonlinearity \(f\) is of critical growth, i.e. \[ | f(u)-f(v)|\leq c| u-v|(1+| u|^4+| v|^4) \] together with some dissipation conditions. Using the Dafermos approach and rewriting the problem in the equivalent form \[ \begin{cases} |\partial_t u|^\rho \partial_{tt}u + A\partial_{tt}u +A u + \displaystyle\int_0^\infty \mu(s) A \eta(s) \,ds + f(u) = h \\ \partial_t\eta = T \eta + \partial_t u. \end{cases} \] with \(A=-\Delta\) on \(L^2(\Omega)\), the authors prove that the corresponding dynamical system has a gradient structure even though it does not contain a mechanical damping term and that the set of stationary solutions is bounded in a suitable Sobolev space. The main result then states that for \(h\in L^2(\Omega)\) and \(\rho<4\) the dynamical system associated with the original problem possesses a global attractor of optimal regularity which consists of the unstable manifold of the set of stationary solutions. Moreover, if \(h \equiv 0\) and if \(f\) is essentially positive, solutions decay exponentially in time. The latter fact remains true even in the critical case \(\rho = 4\). In the proof the authors exploit the energy relation between the term \(|\partial_t u|^\rho \partial_{tt}u\) and the memory term.