Abstract
A perfectly conducting half-space, permeated by an initial magnetic field governed by the generalized equations of thermoelasticity is considered. The bounding plane is acted upon by a combination of thermal and mechanical shock. The formulation is applied to the generalized thermoelasticity theories-Lord-Shulman, Green-Lindsay, and Chandrasekharaiah-Tzou-as well as to the uncoupled and the dynamic coupled theory. Laplace transform techniques together with the method of potentials are used. The expansions of the stress component, the temperature increment, and the displacement, in Laplace transform domain, in power series, and the exact inversions for arbitrary time, are given. The jump discontinuities are calculated for the five theories and the kinematical conditions of compatibility are verified. Numerical results for the temperature, stress, induced magnetic and electric field distributions are obtained and illustrated graphically. Comparisons are made with the results predicted by the five thermoelasticity theories.