Shock waves and the heterogeneity of materials

Abstract
In a shock front, the evolution of thermomechanical state variables, although being continuous, occurs with a characteristic length smaller than the size of an elementary relevant volume (E.R.V.) of the material. So, the problem should be solved at this mesoscopic scale; nonetheless, we show that it is possible to derive jump relations on mean values at the macroscopic scale so long as the local problem satisfies some properties of "homogeneisability".