New analytical model for thermomechanical responses of multi-layered structures with imperfect interfaces

A new analytical model is developed for thermomechanical responses of multi-layered structures with an arbitrary number of layers and subjected to general thermal and mechanical loading. The formulation is based on an extended Bernoulli–Euler beam theory and a slip-interface model. The former includes Poisson’s effect and covers both the plane stress and plane strain deformations, and the latter allows slipping between two adjacent layers but no jump in the normal displacement or traction. An analytical solution for a multi-layered structure under general thermomechanical loading is derived by using a new approach that first determines one interfacial shear stress and the curvature of the deformed structure. To illustrate the newly developed model, three example problems for two-, three- and five-layer structures respectively are analytically solved by directly applying the new model. In all three cases, the solutions are obtained in closed-form expressions by considering both temperature changes and mechanical loads including body forces, distributed normal and shear stresses on the top and bottom surfaces, and normal forces, transverse shear forces and bending moments at the two ends, unlike existing ones. It is shown that the current solution for two-layer structures recovers an existing solution without considering Poisson’s effect and mechanical loading and the classical solution of Timoshenko for perfectly bonded bi-metal thermostats as two special cases. The closed-form solution for five-layer structures with imperfect interfaces is derived here for the first time. In addition, numerical results are provided for five- and seven-layer transistor stacks to quantitatively demonstrate the new model. It is found that the current results for the five-layer transistor stack agree well with those obtained by others, thereby further validating the new model.