Thermal and thermoelastic behaviour of multiply coated inclusion-reinforced composites

This work is devoted first to the derivation of the temperature field in an infinite medium constituted of an n-layered isotropic spherical inclusion, embedded in a matrix subjected to a uniform temperature gradient at infinity, under assumptions of no coupling between mechanical and thermal effects and of steady state conditions. These results lead to an estimate of the effective thermal conductivity coefficient of an n-layered inclusion-reinforced material. The second objective of this work is the derivation of the thermoelastic stress and strain fields in the same basic configuration but now, a coupling between stress and thermal properties is considered and the infinite matrix is stress free and subjected to a uniform change of temperature. These results and the solution of the same problem with a hydrostatic loading are used to estimate the effective thermal expansion coefficient and the specific heats for heterogeneous inclusion-reinforced materials