Can somebody please give me some general figures on the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between steel and fibreglass. I would have thought steel had a higher coefficient but I have been told otherwise and can’t find any solid data myself. Thanks in advance.
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Thermal Expansion - Steel Vs Fibreglass
- Thread starter MadDog88
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For a general thermoset polyester Sheet Molding Composite (fiberglass material used for automobile panels) they list a CTE of 24 - 40 µm/m-°C. For a typical carbon steel, it is 12.2 µm/m-°C.
The reason for this is "fiberglass" has discontinuous reinforcement and incomplete reinforcement wetting. This means the thermal expansion is influenced heavily by the matrix properties, which are low for polymers.
For a general thermoset polyester Sheet Molding Composite (fiberglass material used for automobile panels) they list a CTE of 24 - 40 µm/m-°C. For a typical carbon steel, it is 12.2 µm/m-°C.
The reason for this is "fiberglass" has discontinuous reinforcement and incomplete reinforcement wetting. This means the thermal expansion is influenced heavily by the matrix properties, which are low for polymers.
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