Blow-up mechanism of classical solutions to quasilinear hyperbolic systems

This paper deals with the blow-up phenomenon of classical solutions to the Cauchy problem for quasilinear hyperbolic systems with general small initial data which possess certain decaying properties. We prove that it is the envelope of the same family of characteristics which yields the blowup of classical solutions to the Cauchy problem. Moreover, the blow-up rate is also discussed.