Abstract
In this paper, the problem of an unbonded material under variable thermal conductivity with and without Kirchhoff's transformations is investigated. The context of the problem is the generalized thermoelasticity model. The boundary plane of the medium is exposed to a thermal shock that is time-dependent and considered to be traction-free. Because nonlinear formulations are difficult, the finite element method is applied to solve the problem without Kirchhoff's transformations. In a linear case, when using Kirchhoff's transformations, the problem's solution is derived using the Laplace transforms and the eigenvalue approach. The effect of variable thermal conductivity is discussed and compared with and without Kirchhoff's transformations. The graphical representations of numerical results are shown for the distributions of temperature, displacement and stress.