Thermal stress, cooling-rate and fictive temperature of silicate melts

The unknown cooling-rate history of natural silicate melts can be investigated using differential scanning heat capacity measurements together with the limiting fictive temperature analysis calculation. There are a range of processes occurring during cooling and re-heating of natural samples which influence the calculation of the limiting fictive temperature and, therefore, the calculated cooling-rate of the sample. These processes occur at the extremes of slow cooling and fast quenching. The annealing of a sample at a temperature below the glass transition temperature upon cooling results in the subsequent determination of cooling-rates which are up to orders of magnitude too low. In contrast, the internal stresses associated with the faster cooling of obsidian in air result in an added exothermic signal in the heat capacity trace which results in an overestimation of cooling-rate. To calculate cooling-rate of glass using the fictive temperature method, it is necessary to create a calibration curve determined using known cooling- and heating-rates. The calculated unknown cooling-rate of the sample is affected by the magnitude of mismatch between the original cooling-rate and the laboratory heating-rate when using the matched cooling-/heating-rate method to derive a fictive temperature/cooling-rate calibration curve. Cooling-rates slower than the laboratory heating-rate will be overestimated, while cooling-rates faster than the laboratory heating-rate are underestimated. Each of these sources of error in the calculation of cooling-rate of glass materials-annealing, stress release and matched cooling/heating-rate calibration-can affect the calculated cooling-rate by factor of 10 or more.
Author(s): Sharon L. Webb [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.7450.6, 0000 0001 2364 4210, Mineralogy Department, Georg-August University, , Goettingen, Germany Introduction The cooling-rate history of silicate melts can be investigated [...]