On the calculation of the temperature variation of the coefficient of thermal expansion for materials of cubic structure

The temperature variation of the Grüneisen γ for Cu, Ag, Au, Al, Na, KCl, NaCl, Si, Ge is calculated from experimental values of the pressure dependence of the elastic constants, using the ‘anisotropic continuum model' of Sheard (1958). Except for KCl, a simple summation over six symmetry directions of the crystal is sufficiently accurate to replace numerical integration. The theoretical results agree tolerably with experiment, except for Si and Ge.