Thermal reliability testing of functionally gradient materials using thermal shock method

We found a solution of an unsteady two-dimensional heat conduction equation in a functionally gradient material (FGM) which is subjected to a double thermal shock, namely, a local heating of a specimen by a power laser beam and cooling of a heated surface by a water-air spray. We developed an analytical method whereby a coating is described as a laminated plate composed of n layers with the constant material properties within a layer. Temperature distribution in a nonhomogeneous laminated plate is obtained in a form of series using the Laplace-Hankel integral transforms. In order to extend the model of a laminated plate to describe FGM where thermal physical characteristics are continuous functions of spatial coordinate, we considered the limiting case of the obtained temperature distribution when the thickness of the layer i Δ_i→0, and the number of layers n→∞. This allowed us to obtain the temperature distribution in an easy-to-use analytical form which can be used for determining thermal stresses in FGM. The dependence of the temperature distribution in FGM on the operating parameters of a double thermal shock method, e.g., a duration of heating, laser beam radius, the rate of a spray cooling, is discussed.