CTE

Engineering definition

Coefficient of thermal expansion: a measure of how much something will expand by increasing its temperature.

Medical definition

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy: a degenerative disease of the brain typically caused by repetitive trauma to the head.

Confusion

Same acronym, different meaning. “CTE” is commonly used in each respective field, but the meanings are clearly not interchangeable. The medical term may be used by orthopedic surgeons as they consider implants of bone and /or composite material or the use of shape memory alloys for their patients with CTE.