Abstract
The present paper is concerned with the investigation of propagation of thermoelastic media, the fmite difference technique is used to obtain the solution for the uncoupled dynamic thermoelastic stress problem in a non-homogeneous orthrotropc thick cylindrical shell. In implementing the method, the linear dynamic thermoelasticity equations are used with the appropriate boundary and initial conditions. Thermal shock stress becomes of significant magnitude due to stress wave propagation which is initiated at the boundaries by sudden thermal loading. Numerical results have been given and illustrated graphically in each case considered. The presented results indicate that the effect of inhomogeneity is very pronounced.