A MGT thermoelastic problem with two relaxation parameters

Abstract In this paper, we consider, from both analytical and numerical viewpoints, a thermoelastic problem. The so-called MGT model, with two different relaxation parameters, is used for both the displacements and the thermal displacement, leading to a linear coupled system made by two third-order in time partial differential equations. Then, using the theory of linear semi-groups the existence and uniqueness to this problem is proved. If we restrict ourselves to the one-dimensional case, the exponential decay of the energy is obtained assuming some conditions on the constitutive parameters. Then, using the classical finite element method and the implicit Euler scheme, we introduce a fully discrete approximation of a variational formulation of the thermomechanical problem. A main a priori error estimates result is shown, from which we conclude the linear convergence under suitable additional regularity conditions. Finally, we present some one-dimensional numerical simulations to demonstrate the convergence of the fully discrete approximation, the behavior of the discrete energy decay and the dependence on a coupling parameter.