AUTOMATED MEASUREMENT OF THE COEFFICIENT OF LINEAR THERMAL EXPANSION OF COMPOSITE POLYMER MATERIALS.

Automation of the measurements of the coefficients of linear thermal expansion (contraction) of composite materials is very topical because of the behavior of these materials when heated, and on account of the need of obtaining and processing the entire body of experimental data, increasing their accuracy and reliability. For measuring linear expansion (contraction) of specimens of composite materials tested under conditions of thermal and mechanical loading on an installation DTM, an optical tracking system OSS-50-1300 was devised at the Institute of the Strength of Materials, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. The measuring system contains an optimechanical unit, two phototracking units, and a current supply unit. The specimen provided with two marks is situated in the test chamber of the installation.