This newsletter is e-mailed by McCrometer monthly to subscribers worldwide. It consists of flow measurement information of interest for professionals in this field. In some industrial applications, where flowing temperatures are well above ambient, flow meter users must consider the thermal expansion of the metal in the meter.
Metals have a thermal expansion coefficient.
This means the metal will expand a certain amount with every increase in temperature. The steel will expand 0.0000095 inches for every inch of total length for every Fahrenheit degree increase in temperature. With such a small number, the effect of expansion is often considered too small to include in the calculations. In certain applications, this could affect the accuracy of the flow meter. Here's an example of what effect thermal expansion can have on the accuracy of a flow meter.