LAUSR

Thermoelasticity extends the classical elastic theory by coupling the fields of particle displacement and temperature. The classical theory of thermoelasticity, based on a parabolic-type heat-conduction equation, is characteristic of an unphysical behaviour of thermoelastic waves with discontinuities and infinite velocities as a function of frequency. A better physical system of equations incorporates a relaxation term into the heat equation; the equations predict three propagation modes, namely, a fast P wave (E wave), a slow thermal P wave (T wave), and a shear wave (S wave). We formulate a second-order tensor Green's function based on the Fourier transform of the thermodynamic equations. It is the displacement–temperature solution to a point (elastic or heat) source. The snapshots, obtained with the derived second-order tensor Green's function, show that the elastic and thermal P modes are dispersive and lossy, which is confirmed by a plane-wave analysis. These modes have similar characteristics of the fast and slow P waves of poroelasticity. Particularly, the thermal mode is diffusive at low thermal conductivities and becomes wave-like for high thermal conductivities.