THERMAL STRESSES IN JOINED SEMI-INFINITE SOLIDS

The elastic stress field caused by an ellipsoidal inclusion with uniform dilatational eigenstrains in one of two perfectly bonded semi-infinite solids is investigated. The thermal stress in domain z induced by the temperature variation j T could be simulated effectively by pure dilatational eigenstrain. The solutions are obtained using the method of dilatation centers. The potential functions for the problem solved are the harmonic potential functions of attracting matter filling the element of volume and expressed in terms of derivatives of elliptic integrals. Numerical examples are given to show the normal and tangential stresses along the boundary of the ellipsoidal inclusion and the maximum principle stresses along the major and minor axes in the inclusion that are important to the fracture problems. The effects of the inclusion depth from the interface, the ratio of elastic moduli of joined semi-infinite solids, the shapes of the inclusion and the rotation angle of the ellipsoidal inclusion are also studied. They are of great significance in physical applications pertaining to thermal stress problems.