Stability of the Timoshenko Beam Equation with One Weakly Degenerate Local Kelvin-Voigt Damping

We consider the Timoshenko beam equation with locally distributed Kelvin-Voigt damping, which affects either the shear stress or the bending moment. The damping coefficient exhibits a singularity, causing its derivative to be discontinuous. By using the frequency domain method and multiplier technique, we prove that the associated semigroup is polynomial stability. Specifically, regardless of whether the local Kelvin-Voigt damping acts on the shear stress or the bending moment, the system decays polynomially with rate $t^{-\frac{1}{2}}$.