Transient magnetothermoelastic waves in a halfspace with thermal relaxations (Q1111075)

The distribution of temperature, deformation and magnetic field in a homogeneous isotropic, thermally and perfectly electrically conducting, elastic half-space, in contact with the vacuum, has been investigated by taking (i) a step in stress and (ii) a thermal shock at the plane boundary, in the context of Green-Lindsay theory of thermoelasticity [\textit{A. E. Green} and \textit{K. A. Lindsay}, J. Elasticity 2, 1-7 (1972)]. The Laplace transform on time has been used to obtain the solutions. Because the ``second sound'' effects are short-lived, the small time approximations have been considered. The deformation and temperature are found to be continuous at the wavefronts whereas the magnetic field is found to be discontinuous in the case of normal load. But these quantities are all discontinuous in the case of thermal shock.