Finite element analysis of thermoelastic coupling in composites

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of thermoelastic coupling in the determination of transient temperature fields in a composite layer is studied. The finite element formulation of the coupled thermoelastic equations for an orthotropic material is derived, and the resulting code is validated by performing an analysis on a simple isotropic problem for which the analytical solution is known. The analysis is repeated for a layer of unidirectional graphite-epoxy material, incorporating experimental data on the dependence of the thermal expansion coefficients on temperature. It is shown that there are significant differences in the prediction of temperature fields by the coupled and uncoupled equations. © 1992.