Estimation of thermal conductivity of silicate melts using three-dimensional thermal resistor network model

Abstract

The thermal conductivity of silicate melts was evaluated using a thermal resistor network model, which consisted of a diamond lattice. Based on the assumption that the mean free path of phonons is shorter than the interatomic distance, the thermal conductivity of the silicate melts was calculated through a Monte-Carlo simulation based on the non-bridging oxygens to tetrahedral cations (NBO/T) ratio and the ratio of the conductance of silicon with NBOs (CSi-NBO) to that of silicon with bonding oxygens (CSi-BO). For NBO/T<1, the simulated thermal conductivity of the silicate melts was in good agreement with that reported in the literature. Thus, the proposed method and the three-dimensional thermal resistor network model used are suitable for estimating the thermal conductivity of silicate melts.