The use of computational fluid dynamics to study furnace effects in ITS-90 fixed points realizations

Abstract

Together with the impurities, the thermal fluxes are one of the major sources of uncertainty during the realization of the International Temperature Scale of 1990 (ITS-90) defining fixed points. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a valuable tool to develop models that describe the time evolution of the phase transformation (essentially the evolution of the solid–liquid interface) as a function of given theoretical assumptions and given parameters (furnace thermal gradients, freezing initiation, ambient temperature and insulation). The models can be validated by observing the impact of the selected parameters on the observed corresponding melting curves and used to achieve a full understanding of these thermal effects and their impact on uncertainty. This paper proposes an ITS-90 metallic fixed points CFD model together with some results about the influence of the furnace thermal gradients and the freezing initiation techniques.