Paul,
     > Will the bond hold with the heat cycling?
     > George (down under)

George,
 The bond created by the cladding process is as
good as it gets. There still is differential expansion to
be concerned with. When you have a bond on the
molecular level you need to study which portion of
the assembly has the highest mechanical stiffness.
The plate brazed to the end or intermediate housing
should be more flexible than the housing itself. Ironically
this would dictate a THINNER steel plate which
is what we want anyway!
Bill Jepson

Don't forget the steel runs hotter than the aluminum so there is some
compensation there.

Paul Lamar

Alex Madsen wrote:

Yes. Overall the steel will be hotter. However, at the bond point the
temperatures will be the same. The thermal gradient across the part will
be steeper in the steel than the aluminum. The overall thermal gradient
is very dependent on the rate of convective cooling by the water or air.
If the cooling is good it will produce a larger temperature gradient in
booth metals. Conversely if the cooling is not as good the temperature
gradient will become small.

Without doing the calculations it would be very difficult to get a good
understanding of what will happen.

I think some finite element analysis should solve this problem :)

Alex Madsen

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