Thermal-Structure Interaction

The Thermal Stress, Solid Interface included with this module has a predefined one-way approach for thermal-structure interaction (thermal stress), which combines a Solid Mechanics interface with a Heat Transfer interface from the Heat Transfer Module or COMSOL Multiphysics.

There are also similar multiphysics interfaces available for thin structures, as described in The Thermal Stress, Shell Interface, The Thermal Stress, Membrane Interface, and The Thermal Stress, Layered Shell Interface. The latter requires the Composite Materials Module.

By default, COMSOL Multiphysics takes advantage of the one-way dependence and solves the problem sequentially using the segregated solver. The solution for the temperature is separated from the stress-strain analysis, which then uses the computed temperature field from the heat transfer equation.


	Using a single iteration in the segregated solver does not produce a correct result if there are thermal properties that depend on the displacements. Examples are when a heat source causes mechanical losses (damping) in the material or when thermal contact is present.