Measurement of the thermal expansion of metal and FRPs

Thermal expansion is an important parameter for characterization of different binding forces, lattice dynamics, band and crystal structure of any solids. Many investigators have focused their attention to study this property theoretically and experimentally at different temperatures. It is one of the important properties of metals and its alloys, which helps to calculate the thermal stress. This parameter is also used to determine the compatibility of an insulator as load bearing materials. Different experimental setups have been developed to study thermal expansions of the materials using different techniques namely capacitance method, interferometric principle, LASER, optical, quartz tube etc. This paper reviews most of the experimental setups available to measure thermal expansion of metals, alloys, polymers and fibre-reinforced plastics at temperature ranging from 1 to 1100 K. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.