Rayleigh waves in isotropic strongly elliptic thermoelastic materials with microtemperatures

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the linear theory of thermoelasticity with microtemperatures, based on the entropy balance proposed by Green and Naghdi, which permits the transmission of heat as thermal waves of finite speed. We analyze the behavior of Rayleigh waves in an unbounded isotropic homogeneous strongly elliptic thermoelastic material with microtemperatures. The related solution of the Rayleigh surface wave problem is expressed as a linear combination of the elements of the bases of the kernels of appropriate matrices. The secular equation is established and afterwards an explicit form is written when some coupling constitutive coefficients vanish. Then, we solve numerically the secular equation by mean of a grafical metod and by taking arbitrary data for strongly elliptic thermoelastic material.