TWO-DIMENSIONAL THERMAL STRESS ANALYSIS UNDER UNSTEADY STATE BY THE IMPROVED BOUNDARY ELEMENT METHOD

Abstract

If the initial temperature is assumed to be constant, the boundary element method (BEM) does not need the domain integral in the analyses of unsteady thermoelastic problems under no heat generation within the domain. However, under the heat generation or nonuniform initial temperature distribution, the domain integral becomes necessary. This paper shows that the problem of unsteady thermoelasticity under nonuniform heat generation or with nonuniform initial temperature distribution over the region can be solved approximately without the domain integral by means of the boundary element method. This method can also be applied to unsteady thermal stress problems under general heat generation, though for the general heat generation the domain must be divided into small domains, where distributions of heat generation satisfy the Laplace equation.