A new method to obtain decay rate estimates for dissipative systems with localized damping

We consider the wave equation damped with a locally distributed nonlinear dissipation. We improve several earlier results of E. Zuazua and of M. Nakao in two directions: first, using the piecewise multiplier method introduced by K. Liu, we weaken the usual geometrical conditions on the localization of the damping. Then thanks to some new nonlinear integral inequalities, we eliminate the usual assumption on the polynomial growth of the feedback in zero and we show that the energy of the system decays to zero with a precise decay rate estimate