Thermal stresses in a viscoelastic trimaterial with a combination of a point heat source and a point heat sink

A general solution for a thermoviscoelastic trimaterial combined with a point heat source and a point heat sink is presented in this work. Based on the method of analytic continuation associated with the alternation technique, the solutions to the heat-conduction and thermoelastic problems for three dissimilar, sandwiched media are derived. A rapidly convergent series solution for both the temperature and stress field, expressed in terms of an explicit general term of the corresponding homogeneous potential, is obtained in an elegant form. The hereditary integral in conjunction with the Kelvin–Maxwell model is applied to simulate the thermoviscoelastic properties, while a thermorheologically simple material is considered. Based on the correspondence principle, the Laplace transformed thermoviscoelastic solution is directly determined from the corresponding thermoelastic one. The real-time solution can then be solved numerically by taking the inverse Laplace transform. A typical example concerning the interfacial stresses generated from a combined arrangement of a heat source and sink are discussed in detail. The corresponding thin-film problem is also discussed.