Publications

Calibration-free electrical conductivity measurements for highly conductive slags

Van Den Avyle, James A.; Melgaard, David K.; Van Den Avyle, James A.

This research involves the measurement of the electrical conductivity (K) for the ESR (electroslag remelting) slag (60 wt.% CaF{sub 2} - 20 wt.% CaO - 20 wt.% Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}) used in the decontamination of radioactive stainless steel. The electrical conductivity is measured with an improved high-accuracy-height-differential technique that requires no calibration. This method consists of making continuous AC impedance measurements over several successive depth increments of the coaxial cylindrical electrodes in the ESR slag. The electrical conductivity is then calculated from the slope of the plot of inverse impedance versus the depth of the electrodes in the slag. The improvements on the existing technique include an increased electrochemical cell geometry and the capability of measuring high precision depth increments and the associated impedances. These improvements allow this technique to be used for measuring the electrical conductivity of highly conductive slags such as the ESR slag. The volatilization rate and the volatile species of the ESR slag measured through thermogravimetric (TG) and mass spectroscopy analysis, respectively, reveal that the ESR slag composition essentially remains the same throughout the electrical conductivity experiments.