I deal with it in a couple of ways.
1.) Socketed ICs on R.O.W. mounted equipment. You get alot of crunching sounds when you press on the chips. The leads and socket materials have different coefficients.
2.) Programming underground storage tank monitoring systems. #2 diesel fuel is .00045. The number is needed for temperature compensated volumes.
I know that this is a little off-topic, but we also use gizmos that differentiate between fluids with 2 thermal conductivity coefficients. These RTD (Resistive Temperature Devices) let us know if the probes are suspended in hydrocarbons or water so that we might get our filters drained before the elements swell up and block flow.
Joe
