On singular surfaces in isotropic linear thermoelasticity with initial stress

It will be shown that the theory of a fundamental paper of Chadwick and Pow drill on singular surfaces, propagating in a linear thermoelastic body whic h is stress-free, homogeneous, and isotropic, also holds when the medium is subjected to hydrostatic initial stress provided the two characteristic sp eeds are suitably changed. The result is obtained by using Blot's lineariza tion of the constitutive law for the stress. (C) 1999 Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(99)03409-8].