Thermal Stresses in an Elastic Rectangle

The paper addresses the method of determining the two-dimensional thermal stresses in a rectangular isotropic plate or a long bar with arbitrary temperature distribution in the plane and with no variation in temperature through the thickness is presented. The thermal stress have been obtained by the superposition method in terms of Fourier series that satisfy the differential equation and the boundary conditions. The method is illustrated by two examples. The distribution of stresses along some typical lines in the rectangle are computed and the possibilities of approximate solutions are estimated.