Finite Element Analysis of Thermal Stress at the Interface in Plastic/Brittle Multi-Layer Composite Materials

The thermal stress of a multi-layer composite of plastic/brittle material was studied by the finite element method. High stress is found to be located on the interfaces between the plastic and the brittle material. 1-D and 2-D approaches for the determination of the temperature distributions in the multi-layer composite were examined. The 1-D approach gives an approximate 80 percent of error in temperature and a maximum of 20 percent of error in thermal stress in comparison with the 2-D approach. This suggests that, for a plastic/brittle composite, a 2-D approach for the determination of the temperature distribution should be taken in order to ensure the validity in the determination of both the temperature and stress distributions.