Mathematical modelling and analysis of temperature effects in MEMS

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the mathematical analysis of models for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). These models arise in the form of coupled partial differential equations with a moving boundary. Although MEMS devices are often operated in non-isothermal environments, temperature is usually neglected in the mathematical investigations. Therefore the focus of our modelling is to incorporate temperature and the related material properties. We derive two models, both of which focus on different aspects of the underlying physics. Afterwards we prove local well-posedness in time and also global well-posedness under additional assumptions on the model's parameters. Lastly, we provide some numerical results which exemplify how temperature and the model's material constants change the qualitative behaviour of the system.