Anisotropic and negative thermal expansion behavior in a cellular microstructure

Abstract

Anisotropic and positive and negative thermal expansion behavior in a cellular microstructure were investigated. The idealized representative volume element (RVE) of a cellular microstructure consists of thermally inexpandible rod elements (thick lines) and thermally expandible rod elements (thin lines). It was observed that the magnitude of negative thermal expansion was greately reduced when the central junction angles and rods were rotable and expansible respectively. The results show that the coefficient of thermal shearing was dependent on microstructural geometry and the change in temperature, but independent from the co-efficient of thermal expansion.