Meaning 1:
Coefficient of expansion
Meaning 2:
Center of Expertise
Meaning 3:
Consistent Office environment. NAO program which provides uniform office automation services at a common price, i.e. desktop hardware and software, network printing, operations, etc.
Meaning 4:
Cab Over Engine
Meaning 5:
Centers Of Expertise.
Meaning 6:
Coefficient of Drag.
Meaning 7:
Common Office Environment. Incorrect definition, see Coe above.
Meaning 8:
Cost Of Engineering.
Meaning 1:
When the temperature of a substance changes, the energy that is stored in the intermolecular bonds between atoms changes. When the stored energy increases, so does the length of the molecular bonds. As a result, solids typically expand in response to heating and contract on cooling; this dimensional response to temperature change is expressed by its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE).
Different coefficients of thermal expansion can be defined for a substance depending on whether the expansion is measured by:
linear thermal expansion (CLTE)
area thermal expansion
volumetric thermal expansion.
These characteristics are closely related. The volumetric thermal expansion coefficient can be defined for both liquids and solids. The linear thermal expansion can only be defined for solids, and is common in engineering applications.
Some substances expand when cooled, such as freezing water, so they have negative thermal expansion coefficients.