Institute of Metals Division - Axial Thermal Expansion of Rhenium(TN)

THERMAL expansion of rhenium data have been reported by Agte et al.,&apos; and Medoff and cadoff,&apos; respectively, while the linear expansion coefficient was determined by Sims et Al.3 Denoting expansion coefficients parallel and at right angle to c axis by all and Al respectively, their weighted mean should be equal to dilatometric linear coefficient of a random polycrystalline specimen. The values reported for these coefficients are tabulated below: Since these values are in poor agreement, and because of anomalous expansion behavior observed in titanium 4 and chromium, a rede termination of the axial expansion was carried out. A Unicam 19-cm-diam high-temperature camera was used, with unfiltered CuK radiation. Camera calibration was carried out using at Pt wire standarde at temperatures up to 1100oC, the variation between indicated and true temperature being within the experimental error (estimated at <3oC) above 750o C. Rhenium Johnson Matthey spectrographic standard) was vacuum annealed at 1000 oC prior to X-ray diffraction experiments. Lattice parameters were obtained by least-squares solution using the reflec- tions (1232), (1015), (2024), and (3030) for all the patterns, and the additional reflection (2133) for higher temperature (400°C and above) patterns. The relative expansion data obtained are shown in Fig. 1, lengths of the vertical bars indicating the spread in the parameter values obtained by using various combinations of three spacings from the four or five measured. The data calculated from the equation of Ref. 2 are included for comparison purposes. Several specimens were used to obtain the above data, neither of them showing a significant parameter change after completion of the high temperature runs. Some parameter data and the corresponding expansion coefficients between 25 oC and the measurement temperature are tabulated below. The comparison of the present data with those previously reported shows reasonable agreement with the results of Medoff and cadoff2 within the temperature range covered by them (up to 1000 oC). The a values are appreciably higher throughout most of the investigated temperature range. The basal expansion is—in agreement with their findings—appreciably higher than that in the direction of hexagonal axis. The expansion coefficient, al, however, decreases rather more slowly with temperature than previously reported. The expansion along the c axis up to nearly 1000°C appears in excellent agreement. However, at higher temperatures there is a marked deviation towards higher expansion, reproducible between different specimens. Furthermore, there seems to be some irregularity in the variation of all with temperature, the apparent local minimum and maximum values at 510o and 1024o C, Table II, being well outside the experimental error limits. It must be stressed that the apparent discontinuity in the c parameter expansion is still insufficient to account for the expansion value reported by Agte et al.&apos; since a total expansion of close to 2 pct would