A theory of thermoelastic materials with voids without energy dissipation

This article is concerned with the theory of thermoelastic materials with voids based on the concept of volume fraction [Goodman and Cowin, Arch. Rational Mech. Anal., vol. 44, pp. 249-266, 1972; Nunziato and Cowin, Arch. Rational Mech. Anal., vol. 72, pp. 175-201, 1979]. We use the results of Green and Naghdi [Proc. Roy Soc. London A, vol. 432, pp. 171-194, 1991; J. Elasticity, vol. 31, pp. 189-209, 1993] on thermomechanics of continua to derive a linear theory of thermoelastic materials with voids that does not sustain energy dissipation and permits the transmission of heat as thermal waves at finite speed. Then we establish a uniqueness result and the continuous dependence of solutions upon the initial data and body loads.