Thermoelastic wave propagation in inhomogeneous media

A novel approach to the modeling of thermoelastic wave propagation is prese nted, based on the thermodynamics of discrete systems. The first novelty in cludes the representation of integral balance laws for thermoelasticity in terms of contact quantities that describe the nonequilibrium state of eleme nts. The next ne iv aspect is a modification of the recently proposed wave- propagation algorithm, which is used as a tool for determining the contact quantities in a finite-volume scheme for the numerical simulation of two-di mensional thermoelastic wave propagation in inhomogeneous media. Such a mod ification is needed to provide the satisfaction of the thermodynamic consis tency conditions between adjacent discrete elements. Results of computation s for certain test problems show the efficiency and physical consistency of the algorithm.