WELL-POSEDNESS AND EXPONENTIAL DECAY OF THE ENERGY IN THE NONLINEAR JORDAN–MOORE–GIBSON–THOMPSON EQUATION ARISING IN HIGH INTENSITY ULTRASOUND

Abstract

We consider a third order in time equation which arises, e.g. as a model for wave propagation in viscous thermally relaxing fluids. This equation displays, even in the linear version, a variety of dynamical behaviors for its solution that depend on the physical parameters in the equation. These range from non-existence and instability to exponential stability (in time) as was shown for the constant coefficient case in Ref. 23. In case of vanishing diffusivity of the sound, there is a lack of generation of a semigroup associated with the linear dynamics. If diffusivity of the sound is positive, the linear dynamics is described by a strongly continuous hyperbolic-like evolution. This evolution is exponentially stable provided sufficiently large viscous damping is accounted for in the model. In this paper, we consider the full nonlinear model referred to as Jordan–Moore–Gibson–Thompson equation. This model can be seen as a "hyperbolic" version of Kuznetsov's equation, where the linearization of the latter corresponds to an analytic semigroup. This is no longer valid for the presently considered third-order model whose linearization is associated with a group structure. In order to carry out the analysis of the nonlinear model, we first consider time and space-dependent viscosity which then leads to evolution rather than semigroup generators. Decay rates for both "natural" and "higher" level energies are derived. Relevant physical parameters that are responsible for spectral behavior (continuous and point spectrum) are identified. The theoretical estimates proved in the paper are confirmed by numerical simulations. The derived energy estimates are then used in order to establish global well-posedness and exponential decay for the solutions to the nonlinear equation.