Hyperbolic equations of Maxwell's nonlinear model of elastoplastic heat- conducting media (Q1812735)

The paper deals with a mathematical model of an visco-elasto-plastic material at finite strains. In the first part a mechanical model is developed and the governing system of equations is derived. The main assymptions are: the splitting of the inverse of gradient of finite deformations in a multiplicative way into elastic and plastic parts. For the first part (called an effective elastic distortion) an evolution equation is postulated. Assuming that the internal energy depends on the elastic distortion and entropy, and the entropy production is of non- differential type, the constitutive equation for the Cauchy stress is derived together with a general expression for the entropy production. One section of the paper concerns the derivation of evolution equations for different strain measures corresponding to the elastic distortion tensor. The well-posedness of the governing system of equations is discussed and it is shown that under particular forms of constitutive functions the system can be transformed to a symmetric hyperbolic one. Then due to the known results of T. Kato the Cauchy problem for the system is well posed. A modified Fourier law is discussed in the last section of the paper. It is shown that for a rigid heat conductor the system of two equations: a scalar balance law for the entropy and an evolution equation for a rescaled heat flux, can be written as a symmetric hyperbolic one of Godunov type by an appropriate choice of dependent variables. The system possesses a differential consequence in the form of an additional energy balance law. The obtained equations are generalized to the case of viscoelastic heat conductor in which thermal waves propagate with finite speed.