We consider a dynamical one-dimensional nonlinear von Kármán model for beamsdepending on a parameter ε > 0 and studyits asymptotic behavior for t large, as ε → 0. Introducing appropriate dampingmechanisms we show that the energy of solutionsof the corresponding damped models decayexponentially uniformly with respect to theparameter ε. In order for this to be true thedamping mechanism has to have the appropriatescale with respect to ε. In the limit as ε → 0 we obtain damped Berger–Timoshenko beam modelsfor which the energy tends to zero exponentiallyas well. This is done both in the case ofinternal and boundary damping. We address the sameproblem for plates with internal damping.
