Temperature determination for a contacting body based on an inverse piezothermoelastic problem

The axisymmetric temperature distribution on the surface of a contacting body is inferred from a knowledge of the difference in the electric potential distributions on the two Faces of a piezothermoelastic ''sensor''. The sensor consists of a finite circular disk with hexagonal structure of class 6 mm, having its cylindrical boundary constrained by a rigid, thermally insulated, electrically charge-free ring. The inverse problem is solved using a potential function approach that makes use of three displacement potentials and two electric potentials. Numerical results for a cadmium selenide sensor illustrate the effects of the distribution of the measured electric potential difference and the thickness of the disk upon the healing temperature, elastic displacements, stresses and electric displacements. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.