Full-Field Thermoelastic Stress Analysis of a Finite Structure Containing an Irregularly-Shaped Hole

An assessment of the structural integrity of members containing irregularly-shaped cutouts necessitates knowing the associated stresses. Stress analysis of such structures can be challenging as theoretical solutions are seldom available for finite geometries having non-simple shaped discontinuities and, like numerical methods, they require accurate knowledge of external loads. The latter are often unavailable in practice. This paper describes the ability to process load induced temperature information with an Airy stress function in real polar coordinates to determine the stresses in an isotropic linear elastic finite tensile plate containing an irregularly-shaped hole. Using polar coordinates is significant in that while a relatively simple general solution to the governing biharmonic equation is available in polar coordinates, this is seemingly not so with orthogonal curvilinear coordinates. Compared with displacement-based experimental or finite element techniques, important advantages of the present technique include not having to differentiate recorded data, or know constitutive properties or external loads.