Exponential decay of non-linear wave equation with a viscoelastic boundary condition

Abstract

We study in this paper the global existence and exponential decay of solutions of the non-linear unidimensional wave equation with a viscoelastic boundary condition. We prove that the dissipation induced by the memory effect is strong enough to secure global estimates, which allow us to show existence of global smooth solution for small initial data. We also prove that the solution decays exponentially provided the resolvent kernel of the relaxation function, k decays exponentially. When k decays polynomially, the solution decays polynomially and with the same rate. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.