Bimetallic thermometer: Diagram
Construction and working: Bimetallic strip consists of two strips of metal such as invar and brass welded together, each strip made from a metal having a different coefficient of thermal expansion. Whenever the welded strip is heated, the two metals change length in accordance with their individual rates of thermal expansion. The two metals expand to different lengths as the temperature rises. This forces the bimetallic strip to bend towards the side with low coefficient of thermal expansion as shown in Fig above. If one end of the bimetallic strip is fixed so that it cannot move, the distance the other end bends is directly proportional to the square of the length of the metal strip, as well as to the total change in temperature, and is inversely proportional to the thickness of the metal. The movement of the bimetallic strip is utilized to deflect a pointer over a calibrated scale.