Thermoelastic Displacements and Stresses Due to a Heat Source Moving Over the Surface of a Half Plane

If two thermally conducting bodies are in sliding contact, the frictional heat generated at the interfaces causes thermoelastic distortion which profoundly influences the extent of the contact area and the distribution of contact stress [1]. This phenomenon now known as thermoelastic instability has been observed experimentally in a wide range of practical sliding systems [2, 3]. Several theoretical solutions have been obtained to problems of this kind, e.g., [4-6], but most make the assumption that one of the bodies is either rigid or a nonconductor or both, thus ensuring that the temperature field is stationary in the deformable solid. In the more general problem, the contact area and hence the temperature field will move with respect to both solids. One way to treat problems of this kind is to use the Green's function for a moving heat source on the surface of the body. The two-dimensional Green's function for a heat source moving over the surface of an elastic half plane was first investigated by Ling and Mow [7], who used Fourier transformation to obtain a simplified solution in which conduction of heat in the direction of motion is neglected. This approximation is justified at large Peclet number i.e., when