Interactions due to body forces in generalized thermo-elasticity III (Q2477354)

This work deals with one-dimensional motion of a generalized thermoelastic solid of infinite size. The material is assumed to be homogeneous and isotropic, and linear constitutive behaviour is taken into account. Field equations for displacement and temperature are described by two coupled hyperbolic partial differential equations. Initially, the medium is stress-free and at uniform temperature. Two types of body force distributions are considered. They are both localised on the plane \(x=0\) represented by a Dirac distribution. One is localised in time at \(t=0\), and the other time-dependence is represented by a unit step function \(H(t)\). The differential equations are then reduced to algebraic equations by applying successively the Laplace transform for time variable and the Fourier transform for space variable. The resulting expressions are too complicated to carry out inverse transforms. Therefore two approximate cases are treated: (i) the thermal conductivity is very small, and (ii) the Fourier conductivity is very high. Discontinuties at wave fronts are investigated, and some solutions are presented graphically.