Density and Thermal Expansion of Molten Manganese, Iron, Nickel, Copper, Aluminum and Tin by Means of the Gamma-Ray Attenuation Technique

Abstract

Abstract New experimental data for the density and the coefficient of thermal expansion of pure liquid Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Al and Sn at temperatures between melting and 1973K using the γ-ray attenuation technique are reported. An extensive study of sources of random and systematic errors has shown a maximum error of 0.75% in absolute density measurements. In the temperature range studied, the density behaves linearly with temperature. The density at the melting point and the coefficient of thermal expansion are in accordance with those of other studies. Comparison of the specific heat ratios γ calculated with the results of this study with those obtained using structural data from diffraction experiments shows large and even non-physical discrepancies, e.g., in the case of Mn. Solid-like viscoelastic behavior in the low-Q region is suggested as a possible cause of such anomaly while shear components would contribute noticeably to reduce the liquid compressibility. It is shown that expansivities of the present...