Abstract
In this paper, the digital photoelastic technique was used to determine the transient thermal stresses of two interacting defects in a semi-infinite thin plate, a semi-circular edge defect, and an internal elliptic hole, when the plate edge experiences a rapid temperature change. The problem is formulated as a two-dimensional transient thermal problem in a multi-connected semi-infinite domain. A series of computer programs were developed on the digital photoelastic system to analyse the photo-thermoelastic fringe patterns. Then, the variations of locations of the maximum transient thermal stresses with time were discussed. Finally, the correlation expressions between the variations of the maximum transient thermal stresses with the time, temperature difference, and geometrical parameters of the defects were obtained by the regression procedure. © 1990, Institution of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.