A theory of thermoelastic diffusion materials with voids (Q980826)

The author derives a linear theory of thermoelastic diffusion in porous media based on the concept of volume fraction. This concept introduces an additional degree of kinematic freedom. The governing equations consist of constitutive equations, equations of motion, heat conduction, and mass diffusion equations. The equations are presented for homogenous and isotropic solids. Then, the author establishes a reciprocal relation which involves two thermoelastic diffusion processes at different instants and leads to reciprocity, uniqueness, and continuous-dependence theorems for anisotropic materials. The uniqueness theorem is derived without the definiteness assumption on the elastic, conductivity and diffusion tensors. The reciprocal theorem established here avoids both the use of Laplace transform and the incorporation of initial conditions into the equations of motion. The continuous-dependence theorem is derived from reciprocity and uniqueness. This result shows that in the motion following any sufficiently small change in the external system, the solution of the initial-boundary value problem is everywhere arbitrary small in magnitude. Consequently, the mathematical model proposed for the coupled theory of micropolar thermoelastic diffusion is well-posed. Finally, the author proves the existence of a generalized solution by means of some results from the theory of semigroups of linear operators.