Abstract
This study investigates wave dispersion in a heat-conducting thermoelastic medium by integrating nonlocal elasticity with generalized thermoelastic theories. A characteristic dispersion equation is derived to examine the influence of the nonlocal parameter, thermal relaxation time, and thermoelastic coupling on mechanical and thermal wave modes, with silicon used as the numerical example. The results indicate that increasing nonlocality leads to greater deviation from the local thermoelastic response, particularly at higher wave numbers, highlighting the significance of internal length-scale effects. For the selected parameter values, the Lord–Shulman and Green–Lindsay models exhibit similar dispersion trends, as elastic, inertial, and nonlocal effects dominate over the relatively small contribution of thermal relaxation time. Unlike earlier studies that focus on individual models or limiting cases, this work offers a unified comparison of coupled and uncoupled nonlocal thermoelastic formulations, including their local and classical limits. Several limiting or simplified cases are analyzed to provide deeper insight into the model, while future studies should validate the predicted wave speeds against experimental results or established reference models.