Thermal Expansion Calculator

This tool applies the thermal expansion formulas to a material and a temperature change. Pick a material or type your own coefficient, enter the starting size and the two temperatures, and it returns the change in length, area or volume along with the strain and the formula it used. A fourth mode takes a cross-sectional area instead and gives the stress and the force a fully restrained member develops, which is the number that decides how strong a fixing has to be. Run it backwards to find the coefficient of thermal expansion from a measured change in length over a known temperature change, with the closest materials from the table. The coefficients are typical room-temperature handbook figures and every one of them can be overridden, because grade and temper move them by a few percent.