Stabilization by memory effects: Kirchhoff plate versus Euler–Bernoulli plate

Abstract

In this paper we study the asymptotic behavior of solutions of a dissipative coupled system where we have interactions between a Kirchhoff plate and an Euler–Bernoulli plate. The dissipative mechanism is given by memory terms that act either collaboratively (in both equations) or unilaterally (in only one equation). We show that the solutions of this system decay to zero sometimes exponentially and other times polynomially. We found explicit decay rates that depend on the fractional exponents of the memory in each of the following cases: when the memory only acts in the Kirchhoff equation, or only in the Euler–Bernoulli equation, or in both. We also show that all decay rates found are the best. The results obtained are surprising for the following facts: in the collaborative case, the best decay rates of the system are given by the worst decay rates of the uncoupled equations, and in the unilateral case, we conclude that the memory effects in the Euler–Bernoulli equation dissipate the system more slowly than memory effects in the Kirchhoff equation.