Mast expansion on a hot day.

fredrussell

Well-known member
Joined
24 Mar 2015
Messages
3,186
Visit site
It occurred to me the other day that aluminium being fairly conductive stuff, the mast must expand a few mm on a hot day. More, I’m guessing, than the stainless steel shrouds. So what happens? Does the mast just bend a bit more?
 

cpedw

Well-known member
Joined
1 Jun 2001
Messages
1,254
Location
Oban
Visit site
Conduction has nothing to do with it. The important parameter is Linear Temperature Expansion Coefficient . For Aluminium, that's 24 x 10^-6 /deg C and for 316 Stainless, 16 x 10^-6 /deg C, They are significantly different but they are both TINY so the overall effect is b++++r all.

Derek
 

Stemar

Well-known member
Joined
12 Sep 2001
Messages
22,535
Location
Home - Southampton, Boat - Gosport
Visit site
Being a sad git, I fired up Excel.

Since we're only interested in the vertical component, we can ignore both the angle of the shroud and Pythagoras wanting it to be longer.

If I got my formulas right, from a cold winter's day (0C) to a hot summer's day (60C) - that's a mast in the sun, too hot to leave your hand on for more than a second or two, a 10m ally mast will expand 14.4mm and a 10m SS shroud will expand 9.6mm, so the difference is less than 5mm. Actually, on most boats, the shroud chain plates are lower than the mast foot, so the difference will be less.

I reckon my boat bends more than that when I tension the rigging!
 
Top