Stability of a semi-infinite strip in thermoelastic contact with a rigid wall (Q675397)

The stability of a semi-infinite strip in contact with a rigid wall is investigated using linear perturbation methods. The strip is assumed to be in uniform contact with the wall in the steady-state, with one-dimensional heat conduction along the strip and across the interface, where there is a pressure-dependent thermal contact resistance. Possible perturbations are expressed in form of an eigenfunction series, using the Papkovich-Fadle eigenfunctions for the strip and related eigenfunctions for the thermoelastic particular solution. Selection of perturbations that can grow exponentially in time lead to an eigenvalue problem for the coefficients of the series. Results show that stability is governed by a symmetric perturbation with approximately sinusoidal form across the width of the strip. The stability boundary is quite well approximated by a simplified analysis assuming an exactly sinusoidal perturbation, particularly when the dimensionless thermal contact resistance in the steady state is small.