Thermoelastic in-plane fields in a linear anisotropic solid

Linear anisotropic thermoelastic in-plane problems are considered. A new formalism for general solutions of in-plane thermoelastic fields that satisfy the equilibrium equation and the steady state heat conduction equation is obtained in terms of analytic functions. The anisotropic thermoelastic formalism does not break down for a degenerate anisotropic thermoelastic solid with multiple characteristic roots, in contrast to the known solutions. An orthotropy rescaling technique is developed to determine the dependence of thermoelastic fields on the one dimensionless orthotropy parameter. The complete thermoelastic fields for the original problem can be evaluated from the solutions of the transformed problem by linear transformation with orthotropy rescaling. Thermal stresses in a simply connected anisotropic thermoelastic solid are investigated. Thermal stresses for the case of no mechanical loading anywhere on the boundary are expressed in terms of two dimensionless functions. The two dimensionless functions are shown to depend on only six dimensionless material parameters.