Computational analysis of rates of energy decay in elastic beams

This paper is concerned with the damping of elastic beams of two different kinds. The first model involves the application of viscous damping at a single point either in the interior or at the boundary. The second involves a thermoelastic beam model in which mechanical damping is applied at a boundary. Since the second model is known to be uniformly stabilized via thermal effects alone, an analysis of the relative importance of the thermal and applied mechanical damping is presented. A careful analysis of the effects of rotational forces is also included using realistic model parameters.