Requirements of thermodynamics in the analysis of elastic-plastic shock waves (Q1354950)

Thermodynamical requirements on elastic-plastic shock waves are investigated to explore the range of validity of previous shock analyses. These studies assumed (implicitly) that during shock passage, a material particle's stress and deformation history is well-approximated by its history during passage of a smooth wave, and that the material response is purely mechanical. We show precisely the conditions under which these analyses are valid. The analysis of the order of entropy effects for weak one-dimensional shocks in mechanically conservative fluids is extended to shocks in general three-dimensional large deformations in a material of arbitrary constitution. Specifically, we prove that the change in thermodynamic state across a suitably-chosen smooth wave coincides with that across a general shock up until third-order in material time rates of fundamental field variables, at which point contributions from the shock itself first appear. Further we prove that for the special class of shocks that propagate under steady-state conditions with non-rotating reference configuration images, a smooth wave can be constructed whose change in thermodynamic state coincides with that across the shock through all orders of field variable rates.