Exponential stability in Mindlin's Form II gradient thermoelasticity with microtemperatures of type III.

In this paper, we derive a nonlinear strain gradient theory of thermoelastic materials with microtemperatures taking into account micro-inertia effects as well. The elastic behaviour is assumed to be consistent with Mindlin's Form II gradient elasticity theory, while the thermal behaviour is based on the entropy balance of type III postulated by Green and Naghdi for both temperature and microtemperatures. The work is motivated by increasing use of materials having microstructure at both mechanical and thermal levels. The equations of the linear theory are also obtained. Then, we use the semigroup theory to prove the well-posedness of the obtained problem. Because of the coupling between high-order derivatives and microtemperatures, the obtained equations do not have exponential decay. A frictional damping for the elastic component, whose form depends on the micro-inertia, is shown to lead to exponential stability for the type III model.