Dispersion and energy dissipation of thermoelastic waves in a plate.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the effect of thermoelastic coupling on the propagation of Rayleigh-Lamb waves in an infinite plate. The propagation of thermoelastic waves in a plate bounded by fraction-free surfaces is studied on the basis of the linear theory of coupled thermoelasticity taking into account the coupling between the strain and temperature fields. The characteristic equations are derived for the thermal condition of general heat transfer on the surfaces and their asymptotic equations for particular cases are also examined. Especially, numerical evaluations corresponding to the first three modes of symmetric and antisymmetric waves are carried out over wide range of frequencies, and the thermoelastic energy dissipation together with the phase velocity for both adiabatic and isothermal boundary conditions are illustrated and discussed in detail.