A suite of interactive computer codes has been composed to enable design engineers to predict the thermal resistance that a large heat flux encounters as a result of passing across the pressed contact between abutting surfaces. These surfaces are nominally flat when isothermal at normal ambient temperatures but distort under a thermal stress, arising due to the applied temperature gradient in a direction orthogonal to the interface, so that true contact occurs only over a disc rather than over the whole nominal contact area. The predictions have been corroborated by comparisons with previous experimental measurements. The evolved codes are capable of execution on commonly available desk-top computers.
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