On a Rayleigh Wave Equation with Boundary Damping

In this paper an initial-boundary value problem for a weakly nonlinear string (or wave) equation with non-classical boundary conditions is considered. One end of the string is assumed to be fixed and the other end of the string is attached to a dashpot system, where the damping generated by thedashpot is assumed to be small. This problem can be regarded as a simple model describing oscillations of flexible structures such as overhead transmission lines in a windfield. An asymptotic theory for a class ofinitial-boundary value problems for nonlinear wave equations is presented. Itwill be shown that the problems considered are well-posed for all time t. A multiple time-scales perturbation method incombination with the method of characteristics will be used to construct asymptotic approximations of the solution. It will also be shown that all solutions tend to zero for a sufficiently large value of the damping parameter. For smaller values of the damping parameter it will be shown how the string-system eventually will oscillate. Some numerical results are alsopresented in this paper.