Thermoelastic Waves Propagation Through a Sandwiched Slab with Consideration of Couple-Stress and Non-Fourier Heat Conduction

The reflection and transmission of thermoelastic waves through a slab of finite thickness that is sandwiched between two semi-infinite homogeneous isotropic thermoelastic solids are studied based upon the modified couple-stress elasticity and the non-Fourier heat conduction in this paper. In contrast to the classical couple-stress elastic solid and the classical thermoelastic solid, there exist four kinds of wave modes in the thermoelastic solid with consideration of couple-stress effects. The reflection and transmission of these coupled thermoelastic waves across a sandwiched slab of finite thickness are considered. The nontraditional interface conditions between the slab and two solid half-spaces are used to obtain the linear algebraic equation sets from which the amplitude ratios of reflection and transmission waves to the incident wave can be determined. Then, the energy fluxes carried by the various reflection and transmission waves are calculated numerically and the normal energy flux conservation is used to validate the numerical results. It is found that the couple-stress mainly affects the transverse modes while the thermal effect mainly affects the dilatational modes.