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Published September 1996 | public
Journal Article Open

A noncontact measurement technique for the density and thermal expansion coefficient of solid and liquid materials

Abstract

A noncontact measurement technique for the density and the thermal expansion coefficient of refractory materials in their molten as well as solid phases is presented. This technique is based on the video image processing of a levitated sample. Experiments were performed using the high-temperature electrostatic levitator (HTESL) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in which 2–3 mm diam samples can be levitated, melted, and radiatively cooled in vacuum. Due to the axisymmetric nature of the molten samples when levitated in the HTESL, a rather simple digital image analysis can be employed to accurately measure the volumetric change as a function of temperature. Density and the thermal expansion coefficient measurements were made on a pure nickel sample to test the accuracy of the technique in the temperature range of 1045–1565 °C. The result for the liquid phase density can be expressed by rho=8.848+(6.730×10^−4)×T (°C) g/cm^3 within 0.8% accuracy, and the corresponding thermal expansion coefficient can be expressed by beta=(9.419×10^−5) −(7.165×10^−9)×T (°C) K^−1 within 0.2% accuracy.

Additional Information

©1996 American Institute of Physics. Received 18 March 1996; accepted 31 May 1996. The authors thank Mr. Daniel Barber for his technical support throughout the experiments including the sample preparations and Dr. Erik Spjut for his earlier construction of the pyrometer. The authors acknowledge Dr. Yong J. Kim for his assistance in the data taking part of the experimental work. The authors also especially thank Dr. Kenichi Ohsaka for his arduous checking on the reliability of the volume analysis algorithm. This work was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, does not constitute or imply its endorsement by the United States Government or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Erratum: A noncontact measurement technique for the density and thermal expansion coefficient of solid and liquid materials [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 67, 3175 (1996)] Sang K. Chung et al. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 68, 2597 (1997)

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