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Measuring thermal expansion of glass-reinforced plastic

V.Zavjalov, 2018-2018

GRP plastic rod from RS, Helsinki, Nov.2018

We are using GRP (glass reinforced plastic) for making low-temperature cells and supporting parts. It is cheap and easy to machine.

In the work [1] thermal expansion and thermal conductivity of glass reinforced nylon have been measured. Thermal expansion from 290K to 80K was 0.517%, and from 290K to 4K it was 0.579%.

Since we did not know the exact specification of our GRP, we remeasure its thermal expansion. We used 10mm GRP rod (RSN(771-780)) and an oxygen-free copper bar, connected together at one end with a metal clamp. At 515mm distance from this end we made marks on copper and plastic. We measured distance between the marks with accuracy better then 0.1~mm at room temperature and temperature of liquid nitrogen (80K) and got 0.233% of the total length. This should be added to thermal expansion of copper (0.302%). The result is 0.535% which is close to the value presented in the paper.

Copper and plastic samples connected together, marks on the upper side

Measurement setup. Marks are just above the dewar rim

Thermal expansion of other materials can be found here.