On a class of nonlocal wave equations from applications

Abstract

We study equations from the area of peridynamics, which is a nonlocal extension of elasticity. The governing equations form a system of nonlocal wave equations. We take a novel approach by applying operator theory methods in a systematic way. On the unbounded domain ℝn, we present three main results. As main result 1, we find that the governing operator is a bounded function of the governing operator of classical elasticity. As main result 2, a consequence of main result 1, we prove that the peridynamic solutions strongly converge to the classical solutions by utilizing, for the first time, strong resolvent convergence. In addition, main result 1 allows us to incorporate local boundary conditions, in particular, into peridynamics. This avenue of research is developed in companion papers, providing a remedy for boundary effects. As main result 3, employing spherical Bessel functions, we give a new practical series representation of the solution which allows straightforward numerical treatment with symbolic computation.