International Journal ~[ Thermophysics. I"ol. Igr No, 2. 1997 Toward Standard Reference Values for the Thermal Conductivity of High-Temperature Melts M. J. Assael,=M. Dix, 3 I. Drummond, 3 L. Karagiannidis, -~ M. J. Lourenqo, q C. Nieto de Castro, 4 M. Papadaki, ~ M. L. Ramires, 4 H. van den Berg, 5 and W. A. Wakeham 3'~' The paper describes tile progress made in tile development of an instrument for the meusurement of the thermal conductivity of molten materials at high tem- peratures. The instrument is designed to provide experimental data of unique accuracy at temperatures up to 1500 K on a wide range of materials, some of which will be suitable as standard reference substances. In particular, the paper concentrates upon the method of analysis of the experimental data and upon those critical aspects of the experimental technique which will enable a high accuracy to be achieved. Demonstrations of the validity of the method of treating one correction and of its behavior under typical conditions are included. KEY WORDS: high temperature: molten metals; thermal conductivity: tran- sient hot-strip method. 1. I N T R O D U C T I O N Measurement of the thermal conductivity of moltenmaterials at elevated temperatures has proved inordinately difficult to perform with a high Paper presented at the Fourth Asian Thermophysical Properties Conference, September 5 8, 1995, Tokyo, Japan. -" Departrnentof Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54006 Thessaloniki, Greece. Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BY, United Kingdom. ~ lnstituto de Ci6ncia Applicada e Tecnologia da Faculdade de Ci6ncias da Universidade de Lisboa. Campo Grande, 1700 Lisboa, Portttgal. Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, 1018-XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. r To whom correspondence should be addressed. 439 0195-928X 97 031)0-0439512.50 0 I 1997 Plenum Publishing Corporation