On exponential stability of a semilinear wave equation with variable coefficients under the nonlinear boundary feedback Original Research Article

The uniform stabilization of an originally regarded nondissipative system described by a semilinear wave equation with variable coefficients under the nonlinear boundary feedback is considered. The existence of both weak and strong solutions to the system is proven by the Galerkin method. The exponential stability of the system is obtained by introducing an equivalent energy function and using the energy multiplier method on the Riemannian manifold. This equivalent energy function shows particularly that the system is essentially a dissipative system. This result not only generalizes the result from constant coefficients to variable coefficients for these kinds of semilinear wave equations but also simplifies significantly the proof for constant coefficients case considered in [A. Guesmia, A new approach of stabilization of nondissipative distributed systems, SIAM J. Control Optim. 42 (2003) 24–52] where the system is claimed to be nondissipative.