The propagation and reflection of thermal stress waves in anisotropic nonhomogeneous hollow cylinders and spheres

Abstract

The propagation and reflection of thermal stress waves in anisotropic nonhomogeneous hollow cylinders and spheres subjected to radially symmetric time-dependent temperature fields are investigated. The material of the structure is assumed to be orthotropic with cylindrical or spherical anisotropy and, in addition, is continuously nonhomogeneous with thermal and mechanical properties varying along the radius. The curvilinear characteristics in the space-time plane are transformed into straight lines of equal slope so that the numerical errors can be minimized. The problem is then solved using appropriate characteristic relations on boundaries while using more convenient explicit finite-difference approximations at all other intermediate points in the transformed space-time plane. The physically interesting problem of an anisotropic nonhomogeneous hollow cylinder subjected to sudden uniform change in temperature of its internal boundary is considered in detail. The numerical results for the dynamic thermal stresses are shown in figures, and the effects of anisotropic nonhomogeneous material properties on the dynamic thermal stresses are discussed briefly.