Indentation of a flat circular punch with uniform heat flux at its base into transversely isotropic magneto-electro-thermo-elastic half space.

The indentation problem of a flat circular punch with uniform heat flux distributed at its base, pressed into a semi-infinite transversely isotropic magneto-electro-thermo-elastic space is investigated. The closed-form solution in the full space is obtained by potential theory method. In addition, the factors of indentation stiffness that relates mechanical force, electric charge, magnetic induction with the heat flux are presented. The obtained solution can be degenerated for the corresponding problems of thermopiezoelectric, thermomagnetoelastic, and thermoelastic materials and can also be superposed to construct the solution to the corresponding indentation problems with coupled thermal, electric, magnetic, mechanical effects. In addition, the solution presented in this article can not only help to investigate mechanisms of the image formation in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology, but also can serve as benchmarks for future numerical studies of multiphase composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]