In this paper, we analyze the nonlinear thermoelastic plates, with Fourier heat conduction, and consider a polynomial-type nonlinearity. We first develop a theoretical analysis of the corresponding linear system to derive time decay estimates in L∞(Rn) and Hs(Rn). Then, using that set of decay estimates and controlling the nonlinearity, we prove the existence and uniqueness of local solutions with initial data (u(0),ut(0),θ(0))=(u0,Δu1,Δθ1), with u0∈Hs, and u1,θ1∈Hs+1, for s>n2+1.
