A New Equation for the Determination of the Thermal Expansion Coefficient of Particulate Composites

Abstract

A new equation has been derived for the determination of the thermal expansion coefficient of isotropic particulate composites. An original analysis by Tummala and Friedberg was modified by incorporating the dependence of the internal thermal stress on the inclusion volume fraction, as known from the literature. For low volume fractions of inclusions the new equation gives similar values to the original Tummala and Friedberg equation. For intermediate volume fractions, however (≈0.3 ≤ f ≤ ≈0.7), the present equation is shown to be in better agreement with experimental values for different composite systems investigated.