Solar Gain Distortion 2

[Chris Judd]

Hello All - looking for suggestions on material and design for a trailer. We have a monitoring sensor we want to attach to a trailer, but I am finding the trailer is distorting too much due to solar gain, I think. The distortion is showing in the sensor results as it is very sensitive. I am using aluminum currently due to evenness of heating but now I am thinking that it is heating too fast. Not sure if I should change back to mild steel or simply seek shade as a solution to the solar gain issue.

Any and all suggestions welcome.

 

[LittleInch]

Well aluminium has double the COE of steel and is not as strong so will deflect more.

Shade is a lot easier.

The only metal I know which has very low COE is INVAR 36 but it's very expensive.

 

[BEMPE16524]

mild steel is much easier to work with, but you need proper coating from weather. aluminium tend to distort during welding process and you need to hold it in place to avoid distortion.
if you still want to go with alum, you can add proper coating to reduce the solar gain. some coating I know can reduce the gain.
also, common 6061-T6 alum has almost same strength as mild steel and much lighter.

 

[MintJulep]

Vague requirements and guessing are a bad design plan.

Maybe you should quantify a few things.

 

[racookpe1978]

Why is the "trailer skin (?) thermal expansion" causing instrument measurement difficulties?
Seems the instrument would have to be mounted on shock-proof or very resilient mounts to avoid damage while the trailer is being pulled, when the trailer frame itself is bent and twisted loading and unloading?

 

[IRstuff]

Seems like you could insulate the trailer by covering it with, say, styrofoam and coat the outer surface of the styrofoam with a reflective layer to reject as much solar as possible.

 

[LittleInch]

Chris,

To help better here we really do need some details as otherwise it's all very vague.

I have a problem with a thing that measure something that bends a bit in the sun but is portable and maybe even moving or maybe not....

Any metal will heat fairly evenly, but the structure will determine how much that equates to movement.