Abstract
The classical body-force analogy for static problems of thermoelasticity is extended towards generalized thermoelastic problems. We consider two dynamic problems, namely a thermal problem without body forces, but with a given distribution of transient sources of heat, and a force problem without sources of heat, but with body forces. Both problems are treated within the theory of generalized thermoelasticity, such that thermal wave speed must be finite. We restrict our considerations to the one-dimensional case, and we show that, given suitable boundary and initial conditions, a distribution of body forces can be constructed, such that the dynamic displacements or transient temperature in both problems become equal. This analogy is checked by means of illustrative analytical examples.
