15.
5 Thermal Expansion
General principle: When substances in all forms of matters such as solid,
liquid, gases, plasmas are heated, their molecules or atoms move faster and
farther apart, causing expansion. Cooling reverses this process, meaning it
contract.
Expansion in Solid
First, when we refer to expansion in solid, the changes in volume are not very
noticeable. For example, phone charger, its wire become longer and sag
more on hot summer day. Also, general fact for glass when it’s heated or
cooled rapidly, the resulting expansion or contraction may break the glass.
Another example related to civil engineering is Expansion joints. It’s a
separate component that create a gap or space between sections of the
bridge or road. These gaps allow the structure to expand and contract
without causing damage.
And a bridge rocker or a rocker bearing which is a curved steel or reinforced
concrete component placed between the bridge deck (superstructure) and
the supporting structure (pier or abutment). One end of a bridge is anchored
firmly, while the other end rests on rockers. It tilts forward or backward as
the bridge expands or contracts, allowing controlled movement while
supporting vertical loads.
Its curved shape allows the bridge deck to tilt or rock slightly as the bridge
expands or contracts due to temperature changes or loads.
Especially for highway bridge, Expansion joints and rocker bearings both
works together with to accommodate movement.
When we talked about solid expansion we might want to think about metal.
So, let’s look at bimetallic strip. A bimetallic strip is made by combining two
different metals into one strip. The key idea is that the metals have different
coefficients of thermal expansion. When the strip is heated, one side of the
double strip becomes longer than the other, causing the strip to bend into a
curve. In contrast, when the strip is cooled, it tends to bend in the opposite
direction because the metal that expands more also shrinks more. The
movement of the strip may be used to turn a pointer, regulate a valve, or
close a switch. Bimetallic strips are used in oven thermometers, electric
toasters, and a variety of devices. In figure 15.15 we can see that when
Heating, the Brass expand more than iron so the strip curves toward iron.
While Cooling make the Brass shortens more than iron so the strip curves
toward brass. For example, this thermometer when the weather is hot the
strip will expand causing the pointer to move toward the higher degree and
to the opposite side when it contract on a colder weather.
This work similarly to a pre-electronic thermostat. As we can see in figure
15.16. The white or part shows a glass which contain mercury liquid. And the
spiral shape in red is the bimetallic coil. When the coil contract when it
senses coldness, the drop of mercury rolls against the contract and
completes or close the circuit, it activates the heat. When the bimetallic coil
expands as it senses the warmth, the drop of liquid mercury rolls away from
the electrical contracts and break the electric circuit and make the heat
stops.
Expansion in liquid
In most cases expansion of liquid is greater than expansion of solid. Liquid
doesn’t expand in the temperature range between 0°C and 4°C but when it’s
not being cooled it contracts slightly because the open ice-like lattice or the
open structures crystal collapses. In figure 15.18, it shows that liquid water is
denser than ice because water molecules in a liquid are closer together than
water molecules frozen in ice, where they have an open crystalline structure.
In figure 15.19, The open structure of the 3-dimensional ice crystals that
form as water freezes creates a microscopic slush that slightly increases the
volume of the water. As water freezes, it forms an open crystal lattice (like a
honeycomb). This structure has empty spaces inside it. The same number of
molecules now occupy more space than before. That’s why ice is less dense
than liquid water. When ice melts, you can imagine it as smoothy or slushy,
not all the open-structured crystals collapse. The melting of these crystals
further decreases the volume of the water. The water undergoes two
processes at the same time—expansion and contraction (Figure 15.20) (three
curves):
The blue curve shows the “normal” expansion of liquid water as
temperature rises.
The green curve shows the contraction of ice crystals as they melt.
The red curve combines both effects, dipping to a minimum at about
4 °C, which is where water reaches its maximum density.
Volume tends to increase due to greater molecular motion with increased
temperature, while volume at and near 0°C decreases as ice crystals
collapse upon melting. The collapsing effect dominates until the temperature
reaches 4°C. After that, expansion overrides contraction because most of the
microscopic ice crystals have melted by then (Figure 15.21) (cartoon droplets
+ inset):
It zooms in on the 0–18 °C range, showing that water’s volume
decreases slightly between 0 °C and 4 °C as the ice-like structures
collapse.
Above 4 °C, water behaves like most liquids—expanding with heat.
The cartoon droplets make the concept intuitive: bloated water below
4 °C, compact water at 4 °C, and expanding water above 4 °C.
The inset graph ties this anomaly into the bigger picture, showing ice,
liquid water, and vapor across the full 0–100 °C range.
A pond freezes from the surface downward, and in colder winters the ice
layer grows thicker than in milder ones. Beneath the ice, the water at the
bottom stays at about 4 °C, which is warm enough to support aquatic life.
Very deep ponds and lakes rarely freeze over completely, even in severe
winters, because the entire body of water would first need to cool to 4 °C
before dropping lower. Since winter is not long enough to chill such large
volumes, the densest 4 °C water settles at the bottom. Thanks to water’s
high heat capacity and poor heat conduction, the deepest layers remain at a
steady 4 °C throughout the year—something fish depend on for survival.