Photothermoelastic Investigation of Thermal Stress in Flat Plates

Predictions of thermal stresses in various shape flat plates with a parabolic temperature field applied in one direction were found to yield good agreement with photothermoelastic analysis. A theory based upon an analog was found to agree with experiments on rectangular plates better than two other methods of analysis. The analog procedure was utilized for analysis of a circular plate, to the results of which an engineering modification was applied to obtain theoretical data for comparison with experiments on a hexagonal plate with and without a central circular hole.