Abstract: In this paper, existence and uniqueness of the generalized global solution and the classical global solution to the initial value problem for a class of fourth-order nonlinear wave equations are studied in the fractional order Sobolev space using the contraction mapping principle and the extension theorem. The sufficient conditions for the blow up of the solution to the initial value problem are given.

Key words: fourth-order nonlinear wave equation, initial value problem, global solution, blow up of solution