POINT SOURCE OF HEAT IN AN ELASTOPLASTIC MEDIUM

Abstract

An infinite elastoplastic medium (Tresca's criterion) is loaded with a spherically symmetrical time-dependent temperature distribution. The thermal expansion induced by changes in temperature can lead to the generation of plastic zones. It is shown that relatively simple formulas can be used to calculate the boundaries of the plastic zones for any temperature distribution. The cases of increasing and decreasing plastic zones are considered. These formulas are applied to the case of a constant point source of heat acting during a finite or infinite interval of time.