Asymptotic behavior of coupled linear systems modeling suspension bridges

Abstract

We consider the coupled linear system $$\left\{\begin{array}{ll} \partial_{tt} u + \partial_{xxxx}u + \gamma \partial_t u + k(u - v) + h\partial_{t} (u-v) = 0\\\epsilon \partial_{tt} v - \partial_{xx}v - k(u - v) - h\partial_{t} (u - v) = 0\end{array}\right.$$ describing the vibrations of a string-beam system related to the well-known Lazer–McKenna suspension bridge model. For e > 0 and k > 0, the decay properties of the solution semigroup are discussed in dependence of the nonnegative parameters γ and h, which are responsible for the damping effects.