Two-Dimensional Thermal Stress Analysis under Unsteady State by Improved Boundary Element Method.

Abstract

If initial temperature is assumed to be constant, the boundary element method (BEM) does not need a domain integral in unsteady thermoelastic problems without heat generation. However, under heat generation or nonuniform initial temperature distribution, the domain integral is necessary. This paper shows that the problem of unsteady thermoelasticity under nonuniform heat generation and with nonuniform initial temperature distribution over the region can easily be solved without a domain integral by means of the boundary element method. This method can also be applied to unsteady thermal stress problems under general complicated heat generation. However, for general heat generation the domain must be divided into small domains, where distributions of heat generation satisfy the Laplace equation.