On a Quasilinear Parabolic-Hyperbolic System Arising in MEMS Modeling

A coupled system consisting of a quasilinear parabolic equation and a semilinear hyperbolic equation is considered. The problem arises as a small aspect ratio limit in the modeling of a MEMS device taking into account the gap width of the device and the gas pressure. The system is regarded as a special case of a more general setting for which local well-posedness of strong solutions is shown. The general result applies to different cases including a coupling of the parabolic equation to a semilinear wave equation of either second or fourth order, the latter featuring either clamped or pinned boundary conditions.