A laser interferometric dilatometer has been developed for measuring linear thermal expansion coefficients of reference materials for thermal expansion in the temperature range 300 to 1300 K. The dilatometer is based on an optical heterodyne interferometer capable of measuring length change with an uncertainty of 0.6 nm. Linear thermal expansion coefficients of silicon were measured in the temp...

A high-pressure dilatometer capable of measuring volume changes of 2 X loo6 cm3 is described. Fractional volume changes of 1 part in lo4 can be measured over a temperature range of 30-90 “C, and a pressure range of 1 bar (0.1 MPa)-3 kbar (300 MPa). The dilatometer is constructed out of a commercial high-pressure valve and a compact home-built pressure sensor. The system was specially designed t...

Rock rigidity may be experienced in a wide range depending on several factors, and different methods can be used to consider their load-deformation behaviors. In this context, dilatometer tests (DTs) can be applied to obtain the modulus of elasticity of rock masses; therefore, it is possible to evaluate in-situ stress-strain behavior of rock masses realistically. Nevertheless, the application o...

The Newcastle Dilatometer (NDMT) developed by Akbar in 2001 has a distinctive feature that it loads the soil with a rigid piston in place of flexible membrane as in the Marchetti Dilatometer (MDMT). Based on the previous research works carried out using the NDMT in normally consolidated soils, it has been found that the material and dilatometer indices from the NDMT data can be used to classify...

A dilatometer cell that can detect sub angstrom changes in the length of solid specimens in the temperature range 5 K<T<350 K is described. It is constructed entirely from fused quartz (silica). This is a capacitive-based technique, where the spacing between two metallized plates allows detection of changes in length. It is also a relative measurement in the sense that the capacitor plate spaci...

We report on the realization of a capacitive dilatometer, designed for high-resolution measurements of length changes of a material for temperatures 1.4 K ≤ T ≤ 300 K and hydrostatic pressure P ≤ 250 MPa. Helium ((4)He) is used as a pressure-transmitting medium, ensuring hydrostatic-pressure conditions. Special emphasis has been given to guarantee, to a good approximation, constant-pressure con...