High-temperature,high-pressure thermophysical measurements on liquid zinc

Wire-shaped zinc samples were resistively volume heated as part of a fast-capacitor discharge circuit. Time-resolved measurements with submicrosecond resolution of the current through the specimen, the voltage drop across it, and the thermal expansion of the specimen as a function of time allow determination of the enthalpy, electrical resistivity, and density at different temperatures up to superheated liquid states of zinc far above the normal boiling point. High static pressures, up to 3800 bar of the ambient medium water, were used. An estimate of the critical pressure for zinc is given by investigations of the stability of the sample with a framing CCD camera, taking pictures of different samples varying the ambient static pressure. The critical volume and the critical temperature are obtained by means of an extrapolation of measured data at different pressures.Paper presented at the Fourth International Workshop on Subsecond Thermophysics, June 27–29, 1995, Köln, Germany.