The influence of dynamical thermal expansion on the propagation of plane elastic-plastic stress waves

In this paper the implications of the classical heat conduction equation for the problem of the propagation of plane waves caused by mechanical impulse and sudden heating at the boundary of an elastic-plastic half-space are presented. It is shown that the effect of dynamical thermal expansion is to reduce the jump in the stress at waves of strong discontinuity. The stress and temperature fields dealt with here are assumed to be thermodynamically uncoupled.