Fracture behavior and thermal shock resistance analysis of thermoelectric material plates and shells under thermal and electric shocks

Thermoelectric materials have many potential applications including in thermal protection system for reducing the surface temperature in future space hypersonic vehicle. This paper studies the fracture associated with a circumferential crack in a thermoelectric plate or shell subjected to thermal and electric shocks. The thermoelectric shell is modelled as a plate on an elastic foundation so that the problem becomes analytically tractable. Analytical solutions for the temperature and thermal stress distributions for a crack-free plate are obtained in a closed form. The crack problem is reduced to a local perturbation problem where the only nonzero loads are the crack surface tractions, which are the equal and opposite of the transient thermal stresses obtained from the crack-free plate. The thermal stress intensity factors are shown graphically and their maximum values are identified for the heat and electric current loads. Strength evaluation of the thermoelectric shell is conducted and the maximum temperature and electric current sustainable by the thermoelectric plate and shells are justified. Thermal shock resistance of the thermoelectric material plates/shell is identified.