Inverse problem for viscoelastic system in a vertically layered medium

In this paper, we consider a three-dimensional system of first-order viscoelasticity equations written with respect to displacement and stress tensor. This system contains convolution integrals of relaxation kernels with the solution of the direct problem. The direct problem is an initial-boundary value problem for the given system of integro-differential equations. In the inverse problem, it is required to determine the relaxation kernels if some components of the Fourier transform with respect to the variables x1 and x2 of the solution of the direct problem on the lateral boundaries of the region under consideration are given. At the beginning, the method of reduction to integral equations and the subsequent application of the method of successive approximations are used to study the properties of the solution of the direct problem. To ensure a continuous solution, conditions for smoothness and consistency of initial and boundary data at the corner points of the domain are obtained. To solve the inverse problem by the method of characteristics, it is reduced to an equivalent closed system of integral equations of the Volterra type of the second kind with respect to the Fourier transform in the first two spatial variables x1, x2, for solution to direct problem and the unknowns of inverse problem. Further, to this system, written in the form of an operator equation, the method of contraction mappings in the space of continuous functions with a weighted exponential norm is applied. It is shown that with an appropriate choice of the parameter in the exponent, this operator is contractive in some ball, which is a subset of the class of continuous functions. Thus, we prove the global existence and uniqueness theorem for the solution of the stated problem.