How can I model thermal contraction in Comsol for an elastic solid?

[Markes]

Hello everybody,

Thank you in advance for your help.

I am trying to model thermal contraction of an elastic solid in Comsol. I am sure this is a simple model, but I am a new Comsol user and it is not obvious to me.

My goal is to model the stresses within an elastic solid, that arise as a function of thermal contraction. The temperature is dropped by 5 K, and as a result, the solid should contract. I believe that I should be able to prescribe a coefficient of thermal contraction somewhere, but I couldn't do this in the Material Properties sub-menu of the Physics menu.

Actually, if you have any other suggestions as to how to achieve UNIFORM contraction in Comsol, that would suffice, because my main goal is to model stresses as a result of contractility.

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[Chestermiller]

If the body cools uniformly and it is unconstrained, no stress will develop.