Irreversible effects during thermal treatment of surface of materials

This article contains analysis of thermal stresses that are the result of fast local heating of material. Such kind of stresses may appear, for example, at welding joints in cosmic devises and under laser irradiation.Thermal conductivity equation is solved analytically with regard to thermal dependence of thermophysical properties of materials. The probability of elastoplastic yielding in the compression area is investigated. Residual stresses that are generated on the heated surface after its cooling are studied.It is indicated that residual stresses may result in surface cracking that strongly increases deterioration of effective area at a certain ratio between heating parameters and material properties.Residual stresses suppression mechanisms are suggested.