An unconditionally stable algorithm for generalized thermoelasticity based on operator-splitting and time-discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods

An efficient time-stepping algorithm is proposed based on operator-splitting and the space-time discontinuous Galerkin finite element method for problems in the non-classical theory of thermoelasticity. The non-classical theory incorporates three models: the classical theory based on Fourier's law of heat conduction resulting in a hyperbolic-parabolic coupled system, a non-classical theory of a fully-hyperbolic extension, and a combination of the two. The general problem is split into two contractive sub-problems, namely the mechanical phase and the thermal phase. Each sub-problem is discretized using the space-time discontinuous Galerkin finite element method. The sub-problems are stable which then leads to unconditional stability of the global product algorithm. A number of numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the performance and capability of the method.