Thermal Expansion Calculator - Linear Expansion Calculation

About This Tool:

Thermal expansion calculator is a online tool to calculate the linear expansion.

What is Thermal Expansion?

Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change in volume in response to a change in temperature, through heat transfer. Temperature is defined as the average molecular kinetic energy of a substance.

Formula:

L=α *L₁(T₂−T₁)

Where,

L = Linear Expansion
L₁ = Initial Length
α = Coefficient of Linear Expansion of the Material
T₁ = Initial Temperature
T₂ = Final Temperature

Thermal Expansion Calculator

Initial Length:	m
Initial Temperature:	°C
Final Temperature:	°C
Coefficient of Linear Expansion of the Material:	10-6°C-1
Linear Expansion:	10-6m

Example:

A lead pipe is 80 m long at temperature 20^oC. If the hot water flows through it the temperature of pipe raises to 42^oC. Calculate the length of hot pipe if the linear expansion coefficient is 32 x 10-6K-1.

Step 1 :

Given:

Initial Length L₁ = 80 m,
Initial temperature T₁ = 20⁰C,
Final temperature T₂ = 42⁰C,
Linear expansion coefficient = 32 x 10^-6 K^-1

Step 2 :

The Thermal expansion is given by
L = α x L₁ (T₂ - T₁)
  = 32 x 10^-6K^-1 80 m (80 - 20)⁰ C
  = 56320 x 10^-6 m
  = 0.05632 m.

Answer  :

The thermal expansion L = 0.05632 m.