Wave propagation in a viscoelastic rod with temperature-dependent properties

Abstract

In this paper the unidirectional wave propagation in a rod made of viscoelastic material of the Maxwell type is considered. The rod is subjected to nonuniform temperature gradients and its mechanical properties are assumed to be temperature-dependent. A perturbation technique incorporated with the usual Laplace transform method is employed to obtain the analytical solution in series form. The strong temperature-history effect on the attenuation of the wavefront is demonstrated in simple examples for the case where a stress discontinuity due to constant velocity impact propagates along the rod. Subject Classification: 40.22; 35.50.