On the Cauchy problem for the generalized Boussinesq equation with a damped term

This paper is devoted to the Cauchy problem for the generalized damped Boussinesq equation with a nonlinear source term in the natural energy space. With the help of linear time-space estimates, we establish the local existence and uniqueness of solutions by means of the contraction mapping principle. The global existence and blow-up of the solutions at both subcritical and critical initial energy levels are obtained. Moreover, we construct the sufficient conditions of finite time blow-up of the solutions with arbitrary positive initial energy.