The Melting Temperature of 99.97 wt.% Al Estimated from Activation Energy for Viscous Flow

The viscous flow phenomenon in molten aluminium and the viscosity, in the vicinity of its melting temperature, was analyzed. When the temperature decreases, both the viscosity and the activation energy for viscous flow increase. This is explained on the basis of the atomic rearrangement due to interatomic interactions prior to the separation of the solid phase. The latter was found to be nonlinear as the temperature is decreased wherein the solid phase is separated from the liquid. The second derivative of the activation energy for viscous flow with respect to temperature was found to show discontinuity in the vicinity of the melting temperature. Thus, the second derivative offers a way of estimating the melting temperature of metals. Our estimations indicate that the break of the second derivative vs. temperature could be observed at 938 K.