Finite-dimensional attractor for a composite system of wave/plate equations with localized damping

The long-term behaviour of solutions to a model for acoustic–structure interactions is addressed; the system consists of coupled semilinear wave (3D) and plate equations with nonlinear damping and critical sources. The questions of interest are the existence of a global attractor for the dynamics generated by this composite system as well as dimensionality and regularity of the attractor. A distinct and challenging feature of the problem is the geometrically restricted dissipation on the wave component of the system. It is shown that the existence of a global attractor of finite fractal dimension—established in a previous work by Bucci et al (2007 Commun. Pure Appl. Anal. 6 113–40) only in the presence of full-interior acoustic damping—holds even in the case of localized dissipation. This nontrivial generalization is inspired by, and consistent with, the recent advances in the study of wave equations with nonlinear localized damping.