A Thermoelastic Stress Analysis General Model: Study of the Influence of Biaxial Residual Stress on Aluminium and Titanium

All the studies on the thermoelastic behaviour of materials, including the revised higher order theory on the thermoelastic effect, are based on several assumptions that limit the application of such theory to the cases of isotropic materials in the presence of uniaxial residual stresses and undergoing uniaxial applied loads. These assumptions lead to some discrepancies in the description of the real thermoelastic behaviour of materials in the presence of residual stresses. In this work, by rewriting the thermoelastic equation in a different way, it was possible to study the behaviour of homogeneous and non-isotropic materials undergoing any loading conditions and residual stresses. Firstly, the error made by the calibration procedures of thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) data in the presence of residual stresses has been investigated. Then, a statistical analysis was carried out to determine the minimum value of residual stress which would lead to significant and measurable variations in the thermoelastic signal. The simulations involved two non-ferrous metals: AA6082 and Ti6Al4V, which exhibit a specific thermoelastic behaviour.