Exponential energy decay and blow-up of solutions for a system of nonlinear viscoelastic wave equations with strong damping

In this paper, we consider the system of nonlinear viscoelastic equations u t t - Δ u + ∫ 0 t g 1 ( t - τ ) Δ u ( τ ) d τ - Δ u t = f 1 ( u , v ) , ( x , t ) ∈ Ω × ( 0 , T ) , v t t - Δ v + ∫ 0 t g 2 ( t - τ ) Δ v ( τ ) d τ - Δ v t = f 2 ( u , v ) , ( x , t ) ∈ Ω × ( 0 , T ) with initial and Dirichlet boundary conditions. We prove that, under suitable assumptions on the functions gi , fi (i = 1, 2) and certain initial data in the stable set, the decay rate of the solution energy is exponential. Conversely, for certain initial data in the unstable set, there are solutions with positive initial energy that blow up in finite time. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classifications: 35L05; 35L55; 35L70.