Heat conduction in microstructured solids under localised pulse loading

The influence of a microstructure on heat conduction in solids is studied using the internal variable approach. Two variants of the internal variable treatment are compared by means of the numerical simulation of two-dimensional heat conduction in a plate under a localised thermal pulse loading. Computation of the same problem by the different internal variable descriptions produces qualitatively dissimilar results. The single internal variable approach leads to a diffusional type of the internal variable evolution. In contrast, the dual internal variable technique provides a wave-like evolution of the internal variables and, as the consequence, the corresponding wave-like heat transfer. The results are obtained in the dimensionless form, and parameters of models are chosen to emphasise the features of each model.