Thermal Expansion Converter

About This Tool

This Thermal Expansion Converter is an essential tool for materials science, civil, and mechanical engineering. It converts the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), which describes how the size of an object changes with a change in temperature. The base unit is per Kelvin (1/K).

Understanding CTE is critical for designing everything from bridges and buildings, which expand and contract with weather changes, to precision electronics where even small changes can affect performance. This tool allows for easy conversion between the standard SI unit and other units based on different temperature scales.

Tips & Features

• Understanding the Unit: The unit for CTE (e.g., length/length/Kelvin or 1/K) represents the fractional change in size for each degree of temperature change. For example, a CTE of 12 × 10⁻⁶ /K means the material will expand by 12 parts per million for every 1 Kelvin increase in temperature.
• Interval-Based Conversion: Like the Temperature Interval converter, these conversions are based on the magnitude of the temperature degree, not an absolute temperature. A change of 1°C is the same as 1 K, while a change of 1°F is smaller (5/9 K).
• Area and Volume Expansion: This tool focuses on the coefficient of linear thermal expansion. For isotropic materials, the coefficient of area expansion is approximately 2 times the linear coefficient, and the coefficient of volume expansion is approximately 3 times the linear coefficient.