An asymptotic approach to one-dimensional model of nonlinear thermoelasticity at low temperatures and small strains*.

A one-dimensional nonlinear homogeneous isotropic thermoelastic model with an elastic heat flow at low temperatures and small strains is analyzed using the method of weakly nonlinear asymptotics. For such a model, both the free energy and the heat flux vector depend not only on the absolute temperature and strain tensor but also on an elastic heat flow that satisfies an evolution equation. The governing equations are reduced to a matrix partial differential equations, and the associated Cauchy problem with a weakly perturbed initial condition is solved. The solution is given in the form of a power series with respect to a small parameter, the coefficients of which are functions of a slow variable that satisfy a system of nonlinear second-order ordinary differential transport equations. A family of closed-form solutions to the transport equations is obtained. For a particular Cauchy problem in which the initial data are generated by a closed-form solution to the transport equations, the asymptotic solution in the form of a sum of four traveling thermoelastic waves admitting blow-up amplitudes is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]