1. Introduction
We analyze two abstract problems that cover some mathematical models of thermoelastic type reported in the literature. For a detailed explanation of the physics behind those models, the interested reader should consult the bibliography at the end of the article. The purpose here is to prove that under some conditions on the initial data, the corresponding solutions of the abstract systems exist only up to a finite time due to the blow-up of the solutions in the norm of the phase space. We will illustrate our main theorem with some concrete thermoelastic systems and show that the results published in previous articles are improved.
Firstly, we present two thermoelastic problems that have been analyzed by several authors in previous publications and give the corresponding abstract formulation within a functional framework where our analysis is carried out. In particular, we define what we mean by ‘solution’. Next, we present our main results and illustrate our analysis with some thermoelastic systems. We compare our conclusions with the results already published. Finally, we present some extensions.
Let us first introduce two parabolic–hyperbolic systems that will motivate our abstract formulations. We begin with a Cauchy one-dimensional thermoelastic problem with short memory.
where
is the vertical or transversal displacement of a one-dimensional rod of length
L at the point
and time
, and
is the temperature,
are positive numbers,
are nonnegative constants,
, is the convolution and
h is a relaxation function, see [
1,
2,
3,
4,
5] for details of this model and related, using either the Fourier’s law of heat flux or the theory due to Gurtin–Pipkin. In those references,
is analyzed without source term in the parabolic equation
. Here, we shall study this problem with
and an autonomous source term
f. The assumptions on the initial data, constants, the relaxation function, and the source terms will be given later.
The second problem models the dynamics of an extensible plate equation with long thermal memory.
where
is a bounded domain, with a smooth boundary
and corresponding normal vector
,
k is the long memory relaxation kernel,
are as before, and
See [
6,
7,
8] for the physics of the model. These sources point out that this problem considers a heat flux theory due to the Coleman–Gurtin with parameter
. This theory has the following as limit cases: Fourier’s law when
and the theory due to Gurtin–Pipkin if
. In [
7,
8], a rotational term is considered. As in the last problem, the assumptions on the initial data, constants, the relaxation kernel, and the source terms will be given later.
In the systems introduced above, we have two types of memory terms, a short one and a long or infinite memory. We also observe that the coupling terms in these systems are of two kinds. In , the corresponding operator has opposite signs in the equations of the system, and is symmetric and positive. In , the coupling operator is antisymmetric and the sign in both equations is the same. In order to handle these examples and some more, we shall work with two abstract systems. The first is a system with short memory and an antisymmetric coupling operator. The second is a system with long memory, a coupling positive coefficient, and a symmetric operator. Although more combinations of memory and coupling terms can be studied, their analysis can be performed in a similar way.
Let us now consider the following semilinear problems associated with abstract parabolic–hyperbolic systems with short and long memory terms, respectively. The first one models problems with short memory.
For every set of initial data
, the goal is to find functions
, such that the following system holds for every
,
In the second problem, we consider infinite memory as follows.
For every set of initial data
, the goal is to find functions
, such that the following system holds, for every
,
Here,
,
and
are constants. Functions
and
are short and long memory relaxation kernels, respectively. Functions
and
are nonlinear source terms. The following operators, defined on Banach spaces, are linear and continuous:
We assume that
are linear subspaces of a Hilbert space
H, and the inner product
, norm
, and
are the corresponding dual spaces. We identify
, then
In terms of the corresponding duality pairs, we have the following bilinear forms:
We assume that
P and
, j = 1,2 are positive and symmetric; then we have the corresponding norms for
The following hypotheses are assumed to hold throughout the paper.
(i) There are constants
, such that
For the problem
, we assume that the operator
B is antisymmetric
in particular
For the problem
, we assume that the operator
B is symmetric and positive, then we define a norm for
B(ii) The nonlinear source term
is a potential operator with potential
; that is,
. We assume that
, and that there exists a constant
, such that
and
(iii) The relaxation kernel
, satisfies the following conditions
and
h is a positive definite kernel; that is
for every
and some constant
, where
is the convolution of
h and
w.
(iv) The long memory relaxation kernel
satisfies the following hypotheses:
The phase space, where we study the dynamics of
, is
with the corresponding square norm
For the problem
, we introduce the following new memory function
for every
and, hence,
with
With respect to this new function, we define the following space
with norm
We notice that, by an integration of parts,
Then, the problem is equivalent to the following:
For every set of initial data
, the goal is to find functions
, such that the following system holds, for every
,
The phase space, where we study the dynamics of
, is
with the corresponding square norm
The concavity argument, introduced by Professor Howard Levine [
9,
10], is one of the methods to study the nonexistence of global solutions of evolution equations due to blow-up and has been generalized by means of differential inequalities. See [
11] for an account of several methods to study blow ups in equations of mathematical physics. The purpose of this work is to prove that under some conditions on the initial data, there exist non-global solutions to the abstract problems
and
by means of the analysis of a differential inequality recently studied in [
12]. Our main result can be applied to some mathematical problems in thermoelasticity. Without attempting to provide the state of the art of thermoelastic models, we only mention some cases outside the scope of our analysis. For instance, in [
13,
14], chemical potentials are included. In [
15], time fractional parabolic–hyperbolic and time fractional hyperbolic thermo-elasticity equations are studied. Other nonlinearities like p-Laplacian and fractional powers of operators are focused on in [
16,
17,
18,
19,
20]. Equations with delay terms are studied in [
21,
22]. In the last section, we mention some extensions of this work; for instance, we comment on a thermoelastic system in n-dimensions with short memory, as studied in [
23,
24]. Finally, parabolic–hyperbolic systems similar to the ones presented in the introduction have been analyzed in [
25,
26].
The analysis of problem will be conducted for weak solutions in the following sense,
Definition 1. For every set of initial data,the map, for ,is a weak local solution of problem , if there exists some , such thatwithanda. e. , for every We shall consider that the solution in this sense is unique and satisfies the following energy equation for ,where Due to and , Furthermore, if the maximal time of existence , thenconsequently, The analysis of problem will be conducted for weak solutions in the following sense,
Definition 2. For every set of initial datathe map, for ,where , is a weak local solution of problem , if there exists some , such thatwithanda. e. , for every We shall consider that the solution in this sense is unique and satisfies the following energy equation for ,where Indeed, from this last definition Due to and , Furthermore, if the maximal time of existence , thenconsequently, 2. Main Result
In this section, we shall analyze the nonexistence of global solutions for both problems presented in the introduction and any positive value of the initial energy. To this end, we define the following constants
Along the solutions in the sense of Definitions 1 and 2, respectively, we define the following functions
for
,
, and
Theorem 1. Consider any solution either from problem or problem , in the sense of Definitions 1 and 2, respectively. Assume that hypotheses hold. Ifis satisfied, then there exists a nonempty intervalwith the following consequences: (i) If , then blows up at a finite time ; that is, Hence, the corresponding solutions of both problems are not global.
(ii) and , moreover,for some and , where is a function of . (iii) For fixed , (iv) Furthermore, for fixed, we have the limit values as , Corollary 1. Consider any solution either from problem or problem , in the sense of Definitions 1, 2, respectively. Assume that the hypotheses of Theorem 1 are met. Given any numbers , we can choose initial data with being large enough, so that the conclusions of Theorem 1 are satisfied for initial energy with at a blow-up time
For the proof, we will employ the following definitions.
First, we consider the orthogonal decomposition of the velocity
Second, since the conditions on the initial data that produce the nonexistence of the global solution in both problems are only on
, we define the auxiliary space
then the phase spaces for the problems, in the sense of Definitions 1 and 2, become, respectively,
Third, we define the concept of a positive-invariant set with respect to any solution from problem
or problem
, in the sense of Definitions 1 and 2, respectively. Indeed,
is a positive-invariant set, along
, respectively, and
is a positive-invariant set, along
, if
respectively
Fourth, from (
2) and (
3), and by introducing the function,
the inequality in (
4) has the equivalent forms
Finally, we define the sets
Lemma 1. Consider any solution either from problem or problem , in the sense of Definitions 1 and 2, respectively. Assume that hypotheses hold and (4) is satisfied. If there exists a constant , such thatwhere the function is defined bythen the corresponding set is positive-invariant. Furthermore, Proof of Lemma 1.
Consider a solution either from problem
or problem
, such that the initial data are in the corresponding
. Then, in any case,
. To show the invariance property, we proceed by contradiction. Assume that there exists some
, such that
that is
We shall prove that the time
is never reached. To this end, we first construct a differential inequality for the function
We calculate the first and second derivatives of
, and we use Definitions 1 and 2. First, we only use the hyperbolic equation, which is the same in both problems. Then, we conclude the following for
,
We shall estimate the terms on the right-hand side of the second derivative of
. First, we consider the problem
. By the corresponding energy equation and hypothesis
, we obtain the following:
For the problem
, we estimate in a similar way the terms on the right-hand side of the second derivative of
Consequently, from (
7), hypothesis
, (
5), and the last inequalities, we obtain for both problems and for
,
That is, for
, the following inequality is satisfied
From
, we can simplify the notation by substituting the constants defined in (
1). After multiplying the differential inequality (
8) by
, we obtain
This is the differential inequality studied in [
12]. Here, we will apply it to prove the nonexistence of global solutions of the abstract problems
and
.
We set
in (
9), then this inequality becomes
From the definition of
,
and the last differential inequality, in terms of
, we obtain
Consequently, we arrive to
Multiplying (
10) by
, we conclude the following integral:
By the hypotheses, there is a constant
, such that
then, from (
11)
By continuity, when
,
which contradicts the definition of
. Hence, as long as the solution exists,
and the corresponding
is positive-invariant. □
Proof of Theorem 1. If the solution is global, then
that is, it is well-defined for any
. The conclusions of Theorem 1 are derived from the analysis of (
9), as was made in [
12]. However, for completeness, we shall sketch the proof. First, from Lemma 1,
Then implies that . That is, blows up at .
The proof of (
6) is as follows. First, we notice that
attains an absolute minimum at
; that is
where
We define
. Then, (
6) holds if and only if
Furthermore,
where
. Hence, there exist two different roots, denoted by
and
, of
That is, there exists a nonempty interval
, such that
and
Then, (
6) holds if and only if
. The strict monotonicity of
for
and
, implies that, for fixed
, the interval
grows as
grows. That is,
The rest of the conclusions follow as in [
12]. □
Proof of Corollary 1. Since , and , then, for every there exists , such that Also, for every there exists , such that . Hence, any solution with blows up at a finite time if □
Remark 1. Notice that , the assumption (4) in Theorem 1, is the condition that allows the existence of , and characterizes the condition that implies the positive invariance of and, hence, the blow-up of in finite time and, consequently, the nonexistence of global solutions. Remark 2. The blow-up of the norm of the solution comes from two different sources. (i) The physical properties of the model: . (ii) The initial data: . The source term f destabilizes the system and it is the main cause of the blow-up, meanwhile, the source, g, is controlled by the hypothesis, . The blow-up property is reached for a larger set of values of r as long as decreases. That is, if the ‘decouple’ coefficient η decreases, then the source terms f that produce the blow-up are larger. If we decouple the system, , then the blow-up is reached as if the parabolic equation did not exist. The coupling with the parabolic equation stabilizes the system, as does the damping term in the hyperbolic equation. Indeed, the numbers and become closer to each other as the damping coefficient δ or the coupling factor grows. Hence, the length of the blow-up interval decreases as δ or increases. Therefore, as the damping coefficient or the coupling factor grows, the set of initial energies where global nonexistence can occur becomes smaller. On the other hand, a notable property that should be highlighted is that the blow-up time approaches zero and the length of the blow-up interval becomes infinite as approaches infinity. That is, if the inner product between the displacement and velocity at the initial time increases in value, then the range of initial energy values where the blow-up is reached becomes larger, and the blow-up time is closer to zero.