ARTICLE IN PRESS

International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 47 (2005) 303317

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijmecsci

Transient one-dimensional heat conduction problems solved

by nite element
Bao-Lin Wang, Yiu-Wing Mai
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Centre for Advanced Materials Technology (CAMT),
Mechanical Engineering Building J07, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Received 5 April 2004; received in revised form 25 October 2004; accepted 10 November 2004
Available online 19 December 2004

Abstract

This paper establishes a solution method for the one-dimensional (1D) transient temperature and
thermal stress elds in non-homogeneous materials. Finite-element method is used to space discretization,
which results in a system of rst-order differential equations. Transient solutions of these differential
equations are obtained via either direct numerical difference or mode superposition. The formulation
and system of equations are established in a very concise way. For 1D plates, axially symmetric cylinders
and rotationally symmetric spheres, explicit expressions are given and the corresponding nite-
element formulations are easily programmed. Moreover, stress analysis can be made from the calculated
temperature eld. Some sample examples are provided to show the applicability and effect of the proposed
method.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Functionally graded materials; Finite element; Heat conduction

1. Introduction

Structural components subjected to high temperature, high heating rate conditions are widely
used in many standard and nuclear applications such as radiant burners, heat exchangers, artillery
barrels, piping, etc. The thermal loads are often severe enough to induce a catastrophic
Corresponding author. Fax: +61 2935 14841.
E-mail addresses: baolin.wang@aeromech.usyd.edu.au, wangbl2001@hotmail.com (B.-L. Wang).

0020-7403/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2004.11.001
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304 B.-L. Wang, Y.-W. Mai / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 47 (2005) 303317

fast-fracture or a delayed fatigue failures. The degree of damage and strength degradation of the
materials subjected to severe uctuating thermal environments is a major limiting factor in
relation to service requirements and lifetime performance. In order to be able to predict these
thermally induced stresses, a detailed understanding of the transient temperature distributions is
essential. A number of studies have been carried out to explore the potentially complicated
time dependence of the temperature eld [15]. There have also been numerous analytical
models developed over the years to describe the transient behaviors of commonly encountered
geometries [611].
On the other hand, in order to withstand the severe thermal loads, many structural components
are made such that they are non-homogeneous. Thermal barrier coating of super alloys by
ceramics used in jet engines, stainless steel cladding of nuclear pressure vessels, and a great variety
of diffusion bonded materials used in microelectronics may be mentioned as some examples. Non-
homogeneity in structural components can also be functionally graded such that the material
properties change continuously from one side of the structure to another side [12]. Typically, these
non-homogeneous materials and structures are subjected to severe residual stresses upon cooling
from their processing temperatures. During the operation they may also undergo certain thermal
cycling. Depending on the temperature gradients, the underlying thermal stress problem may be
treated as a thermal shock problem or as a quasistatic isothermal problem in the sense that the
problem may still be time-dependent but with no variation of temperature within the composite
solid.
Clearly, there is a real need for an analytical model capable of describing the thermal transients
developed within non-homogeneous components under a variety of thermal boundary conditions.
Moreover, any model must exhibit a high degree of exibility in approximating temperature-
dependent material properties that may be encountered in high temperature environments.
However, because of the inherent mathematical difculties, thermal analysis of non-homogeneous
structural materials is considerably more complex than in the corresponding homogeneous case.
Numerical method such as nite-element method for solving temperature distribution is of great
importance. To this end, this paper describes a nite-element method in conjunction with the
nite-difference method or mode superposition technique to solve the system of time-dependent
equations that govern the transient temperature distribution. General nite-element formulations
are established. Expressions for the special cases of 1D heat conductions in plate, cylinder and
sphere are obtained in explicit forms. Some numerical examples are given.

2. Thermal conduction equation

Suppose in a coordinate system x (whose components are xi ; where i 1; 2; 3) there is a solid

occupying a space O; which is surrounded by a surface S: The temperature inside the solid may
vary from point to point, and from time to time. Let Tx; t denote this temperature which is
assumed to be a continuous functions of the coordinates xi and time t: A basic law of heat
conduction may be stated as
qT
qi kij (1)
qxj
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in which qi are the components of the heat ux vector q and qT=qxj the temperature gradients.
Hereafter, the summations over the indices i and j will be assumed when appearing twice in an
equation. The components of the thermal conductivity tensor kx are denoted by kij and are
generally considered to be symmetric, i.e., kij kji : If the solid is anisotropic, heat will not
necessarily ow in the direction of the temperature gradient.
The heat ow is controlled by the following conduction equation
qT
qi;i Q rc ; (2)
qt

where rx is the mass density, cx the specic heat, and Q is the internal heat generation rate per
unit volume. Substitution of Eq. (2) into Eq. (1) gives the governing equation in terms of
temperature:


qT qT
kij Q rc : (3)
qxj ;i qt

In above Eqs. (1)(3), material properties r; c and kij are considered to be functions of spatial
coordinates xi :
The thermal conduction equation (3) must be solved for prescribed boundary and initial
conditions. The initial condition species the temperature distribution at time zero, this is
Txj ; 0 T 0 xj ; 0: Heat conduction boundary conditions take several forms. The frequently
encountered conditions are specied surface temperature and specied surface heat ow:

qi ni h on boundary S q ; (4a)

T T on boundary ST ; (4b)

where S q ST S; and the over bar represents known value, ni are components of unit vector n
normal to the exterior of S: Eq. (4a) indicates that on the boundary Sq the thermal ux is
prescribed (h is positive if it is directed towards the exterior of the body). Conversely, Eq. (4b)
describes a temperature boundary condition on S T :

3. Generalized nite-element method

For functionally graded materials, material properties k; r and c are very complex functions of
spatial position x; and the diffusion equation (3) is not amenable to analytical solutions.
Numerical technique has gained wide acceptance in engineering applications. In this section, we
introduce the nite-element method that has been proven popular in numerical analysis. To this
end, suppose the medium undergoes a virtual temperature change dT; multiply Eq. (3) by dT and
then integrate in the entire space domain O giving
Z 
 
qT qT
rc  kij  Q dT dV 0: (5)
O qt qxj ;i
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306 B.-L. Wang, Y.-W. Mai / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 47 (2005) 303317

To satisfy boundary (4a), dT must be zero on the boundary S T : The above equation becomes,
after the Green formula,
Z Z Z Z
qT
rc dT dV hdT dV  qi dT;i dV  QdT dV 0: (6)
O qt sq O O

The nite-element method considered in this paper involves two essential procedures: (a) using
nite-element space discretization to obtain a rst-order system of differential equations, and (b)
nding transient response via nite-difference method or mode superposition technique.

3.1. Finite-element formulation

Let the continuum be approximated by a nite number of elements interconnected only at

nodal points. For each element occupying space Oe ; the temperature at any point can be expressed
in terms of their values at their nodal points by:
Tx1 ; x2 ; x3 ; t N y fTg (7)
in which N y  is known as the shape function matrix and is a function of spatial positions, fTg is a
vector which contains the temperature values at the nodal points of the element. It follows from
Eq. (7) that temperature gradients qT=qxj at any point in region Oe can be written as
fqTg fqT=qx1 ; qT=qx2 ; qT=qx3 gT By fTg; (8)
where By  LN y  and L denots a differential operator matrix. Substituting of Eq. (8) into
Eq. (1) gives the heat uxes qi in each element:
fqg fq1 ; q2 ; q3 gT kBy fTg; (9)
where k kij  is a matrix containing the thermal conductivities of the medium.
Finally, by substituting Eqs. (7)(9) into Eq. (6), the nite-element approximation of the heat
equation can be obtained as (after assemblage)
_ KfTg fpg
CfTg (10)
where the dot represents differentiation with respect to time. The element matrices and external
heat load vector are given by
Z
C rcN y T N y  dO; (11a)
O
Z
K By T kBy  dO; (11b)
O
Z Z
T
fpg  N y  h ds QN y T dO: (11c)
S O

In Eq. (11), material properties r; c and k are functions of spatial coordinates xi ; and fTg and fpg
are functions of time t: If the space is divided into a sufciently large number of elements, the
material properties can be treated as constants in each element. If the applied thermal loads are
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independent of time, then fpg is a constant vector. The numerical integration scheme, such as
GaussLegendre integration, can be used to evaluate the integrals involved in Eq. (11).
The problem now is to solve the matrix differential equation (10). There are many general
methods and several techniques for solving rst-order matrix differential equations. Among many
numerical techniques, we introduce the methods of direct numerical difference in time and mode
superposition.

3.1.1. Finding transient response via finite difference

Since we cannot determine the nodal temperature fTg from Eq. (10) for all values of time t in an
interval 0; t0 ; we will have to be satised with computing approximations fTgm of fTtm g
for some points tm M m0 in the interval. We assume that the points are equidistant, i.e., that
tm mDt; m 0; . . . ; M; where the step length Dt is dened as Dt t0 =M for an integer M:
Assuming that fTgm has been known, then the approximation of fTgm1 can be calculated
from [13]:



C 1 C 1 1 1
K fTgm1  K fTgm fpm g fpm1 g; (12)
Dt 2 Dt 2 2 2
where m 0M; fpm g fptm g; fTgm1 on the left-hand side of Eq. (12) are unknowns, and all of
the terms on the right-hand side are known. Eq. (12) represents a general family of recurrence
relations, which is unconditionally stable and converges for the time portion with the truncation
error of order Dt2 : Therefore, the number of time steps in Eq. (12) can be chosen such that the
pre-required precision can be achieved.

3.1.2. Finding transient response via mode superposition

Mode superposition technique is an alternative way to solve the differential equations (10). It
gives a solution with only errors introduced by the spatial discretization. Based on mode
superposition technique, Eq. (10) is solved by using eigenvectors of the system to derive uncoupled
equations for the generalized model unknowns [14]. In order to nd the eigenvectors of Eq. (10),
the case in which the system has no external thermal load is considered and that the eld variable
for a free response is assumed to be fTtg fTg explt; where fTg is a modal vector of
unknown amplitude, and l is a modal decay constant. The system of equations will have as
many model vectors and decay constants as it has unconstrained degrees of freedom. Then, it is
found, on substitution fTtg fTg explt into Eq. (10), with fpg
0; that the matrix equation
reduce to:
K  lCfTg 0: (13)
Eq. (13) is an eigenvalue problem. For a nite-element system with N 1 nodes, the matrices K
and C are of dimension N 1  N 1: Accordingly, there are N values of ln ; which are the
eigenvalues, and N 1 vectors of fTgi ; which are the eigenvectors. A pair made up of ln and a
corresponding fTgn is a mode.
Once the eigenvalue problem is solved for the eigenvectors and eigenvalues, the method of
mode superposition gives the complete solution of Eq. (10), with fpy ga0: The method relies on the
basic premise that the solution vector fTg may be expressed as a linear combination of all N
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eigenvectors of the system:

fTtg fTg1 ; fTg2 ; . . . ; fTgN fatg Afatg; (14)
where A is a square matrix whose columns are the eigenvectors, and fag is a vector of generalized
modal unknowns. If we substitute Eq. (14) into Eq. (10) and then premultiply the resulting
equation by the transpose of the eigenvector matrix A; we obtain:
_ K  fag AT p;
C  fag (15)
where
C   AT CA; K   AT KA: (16)
The weight orthogonality of the modes is an important property we employ in using the system
modes to solve Eq. (10). Since the matrices C   and K   are diagonal [14], the equations in Eq.
(15) are uncoupled. A typical uncoupled equation is:
ATn fpy g
a_ n ln an ; n 1; . . . ; N  1; (17)
C nn 
in which ln K nn =C nn ; and ATn represents the nth row of the matrix AT : The term on the right-
hand side of Eq. (17) is a generalized forcing function. The initial conditions for fan g are determined
from the initial conditions for fT n g: Based on Eq. (14), fan 0g can be found from fT0g Afan 0g:
The solution for the dynamic response now involves solving independently N 1 linear
ordinary uncoupled differential equations for an t and then combining the results according to
Eq. (14). The nal solution is a linear superposition of the response in each mode. Eq. (17) is
solved either explicitly or numerically, depending on the complexity of the forcing function on the
right-hand side of it.
In summary, the solution sequence for the mode superposition is:
(a) nd the eigenvalues ln ; and the associated eigenvectors from Eq. (13); establish matrix A
whose columns are the eigenvectors;
(b) calculate elements C nn in matrix C  ; using Eq. (16);
(c) solve differential equation (17) to obtain the vector fag;
(d) use Eq. (14) to obtain the nodal temperature solution fTtg:

4. Consideration of temperature-dependent material properties

In high temperature environments, material properties (density r; specic heat c and thermal
conductivity k, etc.) may become temperature-dependent. Finite-element equations for such a
problem can be derived using a similar procedure outlined in Section 3. The matrix equations
obtained have the same forms as those given there, provided that the coefcient matrices [C] and
[K] are functions of temperature T and/or its gradients. The system of equations will then become
non-linear and can be solved iteratively. To avoid iterative operation, one can use the nite
difference scheme with the additional assumption that material properties (and then [C] and [K])
at time interval tm ; tm1 are functions of the temperature vector fTgm at time tm ; which has
already been known in each time step.
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5. Explicit expressions for 1D linear interpolation elements

The nite-element formulation in Section 3 is established in the most general way. A practical
situation arises where the system equations are simplied.
Referring to the coordinate systems shown in Fig. 1, the equations of 1D heat conduction along
the radial direction of a plate, a cylinder and a sphere can be written as:


qT 1 q L qT
rc L r kr Q; (18)
qt r qr qr
where L are 0, 1 and 2 for plate, cylinder and sphere, respectively, r is the radial coordinate. If the
medium is divided into a number of linear interpolation elements along the r-direction (e.g., N
elements and N 1 nodes) with each elements properties being assigned with constants, then the
global matrices [C] and [K] can be obtained in closed-form.
We start from the ith element whose size along the r-direction is l i : Denote the material
properties of the ith layer with a subscript i. If the temperature inside the element is assumed a
linear function of position r, where r 2 ri ; ri1 ; then a linear shape function N y  for the ith
element can be chosen as



r  ri r  ri
N y  1 ; : (19)
li li
The geometry matrix By  is obtained from Eqs. (8) and (19), and is given by
By i 1=l i ; 1=l i : (20)
If we write the element matrices Ci ; Ki and fpi g for the ith elements as follows:
2 3 2 3 8 9
C i C i
K i
K i < pi =
11 12
Ci 4 i 5 Ki 4 11 12
5 fpgi 1
i ; i i ; ; (21)
C 21 C 22 K 21 K 22 : pi
2
;

then the assembly of element matrices to form the global matrices in Eq. (10) gives:
(1) fTg fT 1 ; T 2 ; . . . ; T N1 gT :
(2) The non-zero ith row and jth column elements C ij in the global matrix C are:

Fig. 1. Boundary conditions and coordinate system of: (a) non-homogeneous plate and (b) hollow circular cylinder or
hollow sphere (for solid cylinder or sphere, ra 0).
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310 B.-L. Wang, Y.-W. Mai / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 47 (2005) 303317

 the rst row: C 11 C 1 1

11 ; C 12 C 12 ;
 the ith row N 14i41: C ii1 C i1 i1
21 ; C ii C 22 C i i
11 ; C ii1 C 12 ;
N N
 the last row: C N1N C 21 , C N1N1 C 22 :
(3) The assembly of the global matrix [K] is the same as that of the global matrix [C].
(4) The ith elements pi in the global load vector fpg are:
 p1 p1 i1
1 p1 ; pi p2 pi N
1 pi ; pN1 p2 pN1 ; where pi are equivalent thermal
load vector at the ith node.

We further assume that materials in each element are homogeneous, then the evaluation
of Eq. (11) will give the following element matrices:
(i) Plate: The volume integral dO for a straight plate is dO S i dr, where S i is the area of the
plate at the ith element (the area is in the plane perpendicular to the r-axis). The results are:
Z  
T rci l i 2 1
Ci S i rcN y  N y  dr Si ; (22a)
ll 6 1 2
Z  
T ki 1 1
Ki S i By  kBy  dr Si ; (22b)
li l i 1 1
( ) Z
hi S i
fpgi Si QN y T dr: (22c)
hi1 S i1 li

(ii) Cylinder: The volume integral dO for an axially symmetric cylinder is dO 2prH i dr; where
H i is the length (along the axi-symmetric axis) of the cylinder at the ith element. Hence,
Z " #
T prci l i ri1 3ri ri1 ri
Ci 2pH i rcN y  N y r dr Hi; (23a)
li 6 ri1 ri 3ri1 ri
Z  
T ri1 ri 1 1
Ki 2pH i By  kBy r dr pki Hi; (23b)
li li 1 1
( ) Z
2phi H i ri
fpgi 2pH i QN y T r dr: (23c)
2phi1 H i1 ri1 li

(iii) Sphere: The volume integral dO for a rotationally symmetric sphere is dO 4pr2 dr: Then,
Z
Ci 4p rcN y T N y r2 dr
ll
2 3
2 2 2 2
prci l i 4 2ri1 6ri1 ri 12ri 3ri1 4ri1 ri 3ri 5
; 24c
15 3r2i1 4ri1 ri 3r2i 12r2i1 6ri1 ri 2r2i

Z  
T 2 4p r2i1 ri ri1 r2i 1 1
Ki 4p By  kBy r dr ki ; (24b)
li 3 li 1 1
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( ) Z
4phr2i
fpgi 4p QN y T r2 dr: (24c)
4phi1 r2i1 li

In expressions (22)(24), rb rN1 4rN 4    4r2 4r1 ra ; l i ri1  ri :

Now that all matrices are known, we can make a computation code to nd the transient
solution of Eq. (10), using either nite difference scheme (Section 3.1.1) or mode superposition
technique (Section 3.1.2). Although material properties in each element are assumed constants, we
can improve the computational accuracy by increasing the number of elements. The above
discretization method is in a way similar to the laminated plate model used by Tanigawa et al. [17]
and Jin and Paulino [18] to solve the 1D transient heat conduction equations. In those analyses, a
FGM was divided into a number of layers, with each layer being treated as a homogeneous layer.

6. Illustrative examples

In this study, a nite-element code is developed in the programming environment MATLAB.

To demonstrate the applicability of the numerical method, some simple examples for an
important structure type, a circular cylinder, are discussed below.

6.1. One-dimensional heat conduction in a homogeneous cylinder

Consider a 1D temperature rise in a non-homogeneous cylinder whose thickness is equal to its

inner radius a: The outer radius b is equal to 2a: Initially the cylinder is at a zero temperature
environment, and is suddenly heated to T 0 at its outer surface. The inner surface is maintained at
zero temperature. The series solution for this problem can be found from thermal stress textbook.
The entire cylinder is divided into 100 elements of equal thickness. The transient response is
obtained via mode superposition, which gives a solution with only errors introduced by the spatial
discretization. Fig. 2 depicts the temperature distribution at t 0:01t0 ; 0:1t0 and 0:3t0 ; where
t0 rcb  a2 =k is a characteristic time parameter. Also depicted is the steady-state solution.
The results are in excellent agreement with the series solutions.

6.2. One-dimensional heat conduction in a non-homogeneous hollow cylinder

The geometry for this problem is same as that in Section 6.1. The non-homogeneous material
properties are assumed as follows:
r0 c 0 k0
rrcr ; kr : (25)
r1 r1
Considered is the case that the temperature on the inner surface of the cylinder is suddenly raised
to T 0 ; which is maintained thereafter. The temperature is kept zero on outer surface. In the nite-
element analysis, the cylinder is divided into 100 elements of equal length. It is found that the
nite difference technique and the mode superposition technique give the same prediction for the
time-dependent response. In nite difference technique, three thousands time steps in time interval
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1.0
t=0.3t0

0.8

0.6 Steady-state
T/T0
t=0.1t0
0.4 t=0.01t0

0.2

0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(r-a)/(b-a)

Fig. 2. Temperature distribution in a homogeneous hollow cylinder b=a 2; t0 rcb  a2 =k; no differences are
found between the present solutions and the series solutions).

1.0

0.8
t=0.3t0
0.6
T/T0

0.4
Steady-state

0.2 t=0.2t0
t=0.1t0

0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(r-a)/(b-a)

Fig. 3. Temperature distribution in a non-homogeneous hollow cylinder b=a 2; t0 r0 c0 b  a2 =k0 :

0; 0:3t0  are used, which have lead to convergent results, where t0 r0 c0 b  a2 =k0 is a
characteristic time parameter. The transient response is obtained via mode superposition. There is
no closed-form solution for the transient temperature eld in such a non-homogeneous cylinder,
but the exact solution for the steady temperature eld for this problem can be obtained as:
b  r ln b  ln r
Tr T 0 : (26)
b  a ln b  ln a
Fig. 3 summarizes the nite-element results at t 0:1t0 ; 0:2t0 ; 0:3t0 and at steady state. The
steady-state solution is completely same as the exact solution obtained by Eq. (26).

6.3. A FGM hollow cylinder with temperature-dependent material properties

Investigated is a functionally graded material (FGM) hollow cylinder whose inner radius, outer
radius and thickness are 50, 150 and 100 mm, respectively. The material phases inside the FGM
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change from pure ZrO2 at r a linearly to Ti6Al4V at r b: The temperature on the inner
surface of the cylinder is suddenly heated to T 0 ; which is maintained thereafter. The temperature
on outer surface of the cylinder is kept zero. The properties of ZrO2 and Ti6Al4V are [15]:
ZrO2 :
k 1:71 0:21  103 T 0:116  106 T 2 W=mK;

c 274 0:795T  6:19  104 T 2 1:71  107 T 3 J=kg K;

r 3657=f1:0 aT  300:0g3 kg=m3 ;

a 13:31  106  18:9  109 T 12:7  1012 T 2 1=K;

E 132:2  50:3  103 T  31:4  106 T 2 GPa;

u 0:333:
[Ti6Al4V]:
k 1:1 0:017T W=mK;

c 350 0:878T  9:74  104 T 2 4:43  107 T 3 J=kg K;

r 4420:0=f1:0 aT  300:0g3 kg=m3 ;

a 7:43  106 5:56  109 T  2:69  1012 T 2 1=K;

E 122:7  0:0565T GPa;

u 0:289 32:0  106 T:

The simple Rule-of-Mixture is applied to evaluate the overall property distribution of the
FGM. The entire cylinder is divided into 100 elements of equal thickness. The time interval
0; 1000 s is divided into 3000 time steps (i.e., M 3000). It has been found that further increasing
of time steps does not change the calculated temperature distribution for this problem. Figs. 4
and 5 plot the temperature distribution for T 0 1000 and 200 K, respectively. It can be shown
that the inuence of temperature-dependent material properties is more signicant for higher
temperature environments than for lower temperature environments.

6.4. Thermal stresses

The preceding sections established the transient temperature solution. After the determination
of temperature, the stress analysis is relatively straightforward. As an example, we establish the
stress eld in cylinders (hollow or solid), using the above nite-element model.
We start from the ith element, which is an axially symmetric cylinder. Suppose the cylinder is
under plane strain, the displacement and stress along the radial direction inside the element can be
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314 B.-L. Wang, Y.-W. Mai / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 47 (2005) 303317

1000

800

T 600 Steady-state temperature

400

200 Transient temperature at

t=1000 seconds

0
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
r-a (m)

Fig. 4. Temperature distribution in a FGM hollow cylinder, (T 0 1000 K; the inner radius and outer radius are 50 and
150 mm, respectively, the solid lines consider temperature-dependent material properties; the broken lines do not
consider temperature-dependent material properties).

200

150

Steady-state temperature

100
T

50
Transient temperature at
t=1000 seconds

0
0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10
r-a (m)

Fig. 5. Temperature distribution in a FGM hollow cylinder (T 0 200 K; the inner radius and outer radius are 50 and
150 mm, respectively, the solid lines consider temperature-dependent material properties; the broken lines do not
consider temperature-dependent material properties).

found from thermal stress textbooks (e.g. [16]):

Z
1 ui ai r M 2i
uri r T i rr dr M 1i r (27a)
1  ui r ri r
and

Z 
Ei 1 ui ai r M 1i M 2i
sri r  T i rr dr  2 ; (27b)
1 ui 1  ui r2 ri 1  2ui r
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respectively, where E is Youngs modulus, u Poissons ratio, and a thermal expansion coefcient,
M 1i and M 2i are unknown constants. Here after, the subscript i represents the ith element, and the
subscripts I and I 1 denote, respectively, the inner and outer surfaces of the ith element.
Insider each element, the temperature T i r is assumed to vary linearly from T I on its inner
surface to T I1 on its outer surface. Thus, on the outer and inner surfaces of the ith element,
Eq. (27) becomes:
1 ui ai ri1 2ri T I 2ri1 ri T I1 M 2i
urI1 l i M 1i ri1 ; (28a)
1  ui ri1 6 ri1
!
Ei 1 ui ai ri1 2ri T I 2ri1 ri T I1 M 1i M 2i
srI1  2
li  2 (28b)
1 ui 1  ui ri1 6 1  2ui ri1
and
M 2i
urI r M 1i ri ; (29a)
ri


Ei M 1i M 2i
srI r  2 (29b)
1 ui 1  2ui ri
in which I 1; . . . ; N  1 and N is the number of elements. The displacement and stress obtained
from Eqs. (28) and (29) should be continuous at the Ith interface at r ri1 : This gives:
1 ui ai ri1 2ri T I 2ri1 ri T I1 M 2i
l i M 1i ri1
1  ui ri1 6 ri1
M 2i1
M 1i1 ri1 ; 30a
ri1
!
Ei 1 ui ai ri1 2ri T I 2ri1 ri T I1 M 1i M 2i
 2
li  2
1 ui 1  ui ri1 6 1  2ui ri1
!
E i1 M 1i1 M 2i1
 2 ; i 1; . . . ; N  1: 30b
1 ui1 1  2ui1 ri1
There are 2N  1 equations in Eq. (30). Further, at the inner surface of the cylinder sr1 is zero
and at the outer surface of the cylinder srN1 is zero. Hence, the total number of continuity and
boundary conditions are 2N; which can be used to determine 2N unknown constants M 1i and M 2i
i 1; . . . ; N:
For solid cylinders or spheres, sr1 does not necessary vanish but it must be nite, therefore
M 2i1 0: Then the total number of continuity and boundary conditions are 2N  1; which can
be used to determine 2N  1 unknown constants M 1i i 1; . . . ; N and M 2i i 2; . . . ; N:
Once the constants M 1i and M 2i i 1; . . . ; N are known, the radial displacement ur and stress
sr can be calculated from Eq. (27). The circumferential stress, sy can be obtained as
Z
E i ai r E i M 1i E i M 2i E i ai
syi r 2
T i rr dr 2
 T i r: (31)
1  ui r ri 1 ui 1  2ui 1 ui r 1  ui
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316 B.-L. Wang, Y.-W. Mai / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 47 (2005) 303317

Transient stress at t=500

450 seconds

300

150
(Mpa) 0

-150
Steady-state stress
-300

-450

0.00 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.10

r-a (m)

Fig. 6. Circumferential stress sy in the FGM hollow cylinder considered in Fig. 4. T 0 1000 K; the solid lines consider
temperature-dependent material properties; the broken lines do not consider temperature-dependent material
properties).

Numerical results for the circumferential thermal stress sy in the FGM cylinder considered
in Section 6.3 are obtained and plotted in Fig. 6. The curves clearly show that the
temperature-dependent material properties have signicant inuence on the thermal stress
distribution.
The above stresses are valid for plane strain problems. The stresses for plane stress problems
can be obtained by replacing the component a=1  u with a:

7. Concluding remarks

In this paper, the nite element in conjunction with nite difference method or mode
superposition was used to solve transient heat conduction problems in non-homogeneous
materials and structures. A computer code using commercial software MATLAB was developed.
Temperature-dependent material properties were taken into consideration. Closed-form expres-
sions for 1D plate, cylinder, and sphere elements are given. The analysis was veried by exact
solutions for some simple cases. The method was developed in a quite general way so that the
extension to the 2D and 3D problems is obvious and straightforward.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Australian Research Council (ARC) for the continuing support
of the work reported in this paper. BLW also acknowledge the award of an Australian Research
Fellowship, by the ARC tenable at the University of Sydney.
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B.-L. Wang, Y.-W. Mai / International Journal of Mechanical Sciences 47 (2005) 303317 317

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