Thermal Expansion Calculator

The idea behind this thermal expansion calculator is simple: if you heat a material, it expands. If you cool it down, it shrinks. How much though? Well, it depends on the property of the material called the "thermal expansion coefficient". In this article, we explain this concept in more detail. If you want to learn the thermal expansion equation, just keep reading!

Let's begin with the general idea of thermal expansion: why does it even take place? Every material is composed of molecules stuffed together more or less densely. When we increase the temperature of the material, what we really do is supply energy (if you don't believe it, try the specific heat calculator). Obviously, energy cannot disappear; it just changes its form into kinetic energy (see kinetic energy calculator).

As molecules have higher kinetic energy, they begin to move around more. You can imagine that the more they move, the further away from each other they need to stay. As the separation between molecules increases, the material expands. This expansion can also cause stresses (see thermal stress calculator).

Linear expansion is one-dimensional. We typically observe it in all objects for which the length is much longer than the width. Railroad tracks are a good example. Did you notice that the tracks are not continuous but rather made up of hundreds of pieces separated by small spaces (called control joints)? It is because of the thermal expansion. During extreme summers (40 °C), a track can be .048% longer than by 0 °C. It may not seem much, but if a track has a length of 1 km, the difference in length reaches 48 cm! Of course, it doesn't mean that the railroad tracks expand in one direction only; we neglect the increase in height and width, as they are multifold smaller.

Volumetric expansion, on the other hand, is three-dimensional. If a material is isotropic (has the same properties in all directions), it expands uniformly. Let's take a real-life example − opening a closed glass jar with a metal lid. You might find it difficult, but after pouring some hot water on the lid, it gives way more easily. It happens because the lid expands much faster than glass.

There is also a third type of thermal expansion: two-dimensional area expansion. Can you give an example of this phenomenon?

Our thermal expansion calculator uses a simple formula to find the thermal expansion of any object. The equations for linear and volumetric expansion are very similar.

Linear expansion: ΔL = aL₁(T₂ - T₁)

Volumetric expansion: ΔV = bV₁(T₂ - T₁)

where:

• T₁ – Initial temperature, and T₂ is the final temperature;
• ΔL – Change in object's length;
• L₁ – Initial length;
• a – Linear expansion coefficient;
• ΔV – Change in object's volume;
• V₁ – Initial volume; and
• b – Volumetric expansion coefficient.

Use the thermal expansion calculator to find the change in length or volume – simply type in other values and watch it do all the work for you!

The coefficients of linear and volumetric expansion are rates at which a material expands. For isotropic materials, these two coefficients are related: b = 3a.

You can find below a list of the most common linear expansion coefficients.

• Aluminum: 22.2×10⁻⁶ / K;
• Concrete: 14.5×10⁻⁶ / K;
• Copper: 16.6×10⁻⁶ / K;
• Glass: 5.9×10⁻⁶ / K;
• Ice: 51×10⁻⁶ / K;
• Silver: 19.5×10⁻⁶ / K;
• Steel: 12.0×10⁻⁶ / K;
• Wood, parallel to grain: 3×10⁻⁶ / K; and
• Wood, across (perpendicular) to grain: 30×10⁻⁶ / K.