Temperature Stresses:

You have studied in physics about the expansion of solids because of rise in temperature. You may recall that the linear expansion of a solid is proportional to the rise in temperature and the proportionality constant is a material property called Coefficient of Linear Thermal Expansion denoted by α, its units are expressed as m/m/^oC. If α is the coefficient of linear thermal expansion of a solid, its linear dimensions will increase through α m per every meter of its original length for every 1^oC rise in temperature.

We may symbolically represent this as,

where, ΔT

δ= L × α × ΔT

is the rise in temperature in ^oC units.

While the temperature of a solid is raised, expansion or thermal deformation is certainly generates, but it required not always produces stresses.

Thermal stresses are produced in a solid only if the expansion is restrained either partially or fully. Here you will introduce to you the methods of analysis of thermal stresses in solids.