Homogenization of a boundary value problem with mixed type of boundary conditions in a thick junction

Abstract

Numerous papers deal with asymptotic methods for boundary value problems in domains depending on a small parameter in a complicated way (perforated domains, partially perforated domains, framework structures, thin domains); e.g., see [1–9]. Boundary value problems in thick singularly degenerating junctions (the number of components of such junctions grows infinitely as the perturbation parameter tends to zero) have specific difficulties and require a separate consideration. It was shown in [10] that boundary value problems in thick junctions lose their coercivity under the passage to the limit, which substantially complicates asymptotic studies. The papers [11, 12] were the first in this direction. In [13–19], a classification of thick junctions was given and rigorous mathematical methods were developed for analyzing the main boundary value problems of mathematical physics in thick singularly degenerating junctions of various types. The study of boundary value problems in thick junctions is focused on the asymptotic behavior of their solutions as e → 0, i.e., as the number of thin attached domains grows infinitely and their thickness tends to zero. In the present paper, we consider a thick junction whose thin attached cylinders are divided into two levels depending on the boundary conditions posed on the lateral surface of these cylinders (inhomogeneous Neumann boundary conditions and homogeneous Dirichlet conditions). In addition, thin cylinders of each level e-periodically alternate along the junction zone. Such thick junctions will be called thick two-level junctions. A problem on a thick plane two-level junction was considered for the first time in [20], where the asymptotic behavior of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of a spectral boundary value problem was analyzed. Other boundary value problems in plane two-level junctions were considered in [21–23]. Asymptotic analysis of boundary value problems with a periodic change of boundary conditions (Neumann and Dirichlet conditions) on the boundary of smooth unperturbed domains was carried out in [24–26], where it was shown that the first term of the asymptotics is mainly the solution of the corresponding boundary value problem with the Dirichlet conditions. The qualitatively new result of the present paper implies that the first term of the asymptotics is a vector function whose components are solutions of two independent boundary value problems (one in the junction body and another in a domain filled with thin cylinders in the limit) with homogeneous Dirichlet conditions in the junction zone. Note also that the second problem is a problem for a second-order ordinary differential equation with a new right-hand side that “remembers” the inhomogeneity in the Neumann boundary conditions of the original problem and the specific “packing density” of thin cylinders.