What causes thermal expansion?
It says in most textbooks this is caused by particles vibrating more gaining more energy and thus occupying more space etc (kinetic theory) but is there a more in depth answer to this as this seems to be over simplified.© BrainMass Inc. brainmass.com March 21, 2019, 11:27 am ad1c9bdddf
Thermal expansion is less considered as a mechanical phenomenon and more of a thermodynamic event. It is the result of increased free-volume that arises from the added vibrational (thermal) energy. The more you heat the material, the more it vibrates, creating additional free-volume around each molecule, thus expanding the volume of the part. ...
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