Modelling viscosity of alumina‐containing silicate melts

Abstract

A structurally‐related model for the viscosity of silicate melts developed by the present authors has been extended to melts containing alumina. In the binary Al2O3‐SiO2 system, viscosity was modelled by treating Al2O3 as a metal oxide, i.e., as a network modifier based on the similarities in the general behaviour of the binary systems. The ternary and higher‐order systems were modelled using only the parameters for binary silicate melts without introduction of high‐order parameters. The model has been validated for ternary and higher‐order (up to 6‐component) aluminosilicate melts over broad temperature and composition ranges against an extensive collection of experimental data. Good agreement between the experimental data and the viscosity values calculated by the model was obtained.