On Transient Thermal Stresses in Viscoelastic Materials With Temperature-Dependent Properties

Abstract

This paper deals with the quasi-static analysis of transient thermal stresses in the linear theory of viscoelastic solids with temperature-dependent properties. The underlying constitutive law rests on the temperature-time equivalence hypothesis. Following an exposition of the theoretical framework exact solutions to two specific problems are deduced: The first concerns the thermal stresses in a slab of infinite extent, generated by a temperature field that depends arbitrarily on the thickness co-ordinate and time; the second application concerns the stresses produced in a sphere by an arbitrary time-dependent radially symmetric temperature distribution. The numerical illustrations of the results obtained include a quantitative study based on actual test data for a polymethyl methacrylate.