THERMOELASTIC STRESS-ANALYSIS OF ORTHOTROPIC COMPOSITES

The temperature variation in a cyclically loaded orthotropic composite is proportional to a linear combination of the changes in the normal stresses in the directions of material symmetry. An effective method is presented here to determine the individual stresses from measured thermoelastic data in a region adjacent to an arbitrarily shaped traction-free boundary of loaded orthotropic composites. The method, which is based on equilibrium and compatibility, uses complex-variable formulations involving conformal mappings, analytic continuation and numerical techniques.