Thermal Stresses at Spherical Inclusions in Uniform Heat Flow

Abstract

The thermal stresses in the vicinity of a spherical particle em bedded in an elastic matrix are investigated. An exact solution to the equations of thermoelasticity is presented for the case of a stationary heat flow. The results indicate that stress concentrations occur in a composite when the thermal properties of each of the constituents are different. These stress concentrations may be overlooked if one replaces the composite with an idealized thermal model.