An approximate method for the solution of thermal stress problems is presented. The method makes use of polynomial approximations to reduce the partial differential equation to a system of linear algebraic equations or a set of first-order ordinary differential equations. This results in satisfying the differential equation at a finite number of stations. The boundary conditions are satisfied identically. Two examples of the method, presented in detail, indicate that the solutions of the biharmonic equation for the stress function and the Fourier equation for the temperature distribution have good accuracy with a minimum of labor. A generalized method is derived for solving two-dimensional thermal-stress problems --Abstract, page ii
