Heat Conduction Waves in Bilayer Cement Concrete Structures

The temperature propagation in a layered structure is of great importance in determining the thermal induced strain in the structure, and in particular the thermal induced stress along the interfaces of the structure due to the different thermal expansion coefficients of the layer media. In this paper, an exact analytical solution is obtained based on the Fourier-Biot heat conduction equation for a two-layer structure with or without a base boundary. Characteristic frequencies or the temperature fluctuation response of two-layer structures are identified. Once the temperature distribution is known, one can compute the stress distribution in the structure. The application of the model to understanding measured temperature data for two-layer structures such as concrete pavements is addressed.