Analysis of singular stress fields at multi-material corners under thermal loading

The scaled boundary finite-element method is extended to the modelling of thermal stresses. The particular solution for the non-homogeneous term caused by thermal loading is expressed as integrals in the radial direction, which are evaluated analytically for temperature changes varying as power functions of the radial coordinate. When applied to model a multi-material corner, only the boundary of the problem domain is discretized. The boundary conditions on the straight material interfaces and the sidefaces forming the corner are satisfied analytically without discretization. The stress field is expressed semi-analytically as a series solution. The stress distribution along the radial direction, including both the real and complex power singularity and the power-logarithmic singularity, is represented analytically. The stress intensity factors are determined directly from their definitions in stresses. No knowledge on asymptotic expansions is required. Numerical examples are calculated to evaluate the accuracy of the scaled boundary finite-element method