Measurements of mineral thermal conductivity at high pressures and temperatures with the laser-heated diamond anvil cell
Abstract
The high-pressure, high-temperature thermal conductivities of lower mantle oxides and silicates play an important role in governing the heat flow across the core-mantle boundary, and the thermal conductivity of core materials determines, at first order, the power required to run the geodynamo. Uncertainties in the pressure-dependence and compositional-dependence of thermal conductivities has complicated our understanding of the heat flow in the deep earth and has implications for the geodynamo mechanism (Buffett, 2012). The goal of this study is to measure how thermal conductivity varies with pressure and composition using a technique that combines temperature measurements as a function of power input in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell (LHDAC) with a model of three-dimensional heat flow (Rainey & Kavner, 2014). In one set of experiments, we measured temperature versus laser-power for iron, iron silicide, and stainless steel (Fe:Cr:Ni = 70:19:11 wt%), using a variety of insulating layers. In another set of experiments, we measured temperature vs. laser power for a series of Fe-bearing periclase (Mg1-x,FexO) samples, with compositions ranging from x = .24 to x = .78. These experiments were conducted up to pressures of 25 GPa and temperatures of 2800 K. A numerical model for heat conduction in the LHDAC is used to forward model the temperature versus laser power curves at successive pressures, solving for the change in thermal conductivity of the material required to best reproduce the measurements. The heat flow model is implemented using a finite element full-approximation storage (FAS) multi-grid solver, which allows for efficient computation with flexible inputs for geometry and material properties in the diamond anvil cell (Rainey et al., 2013). We use the results of our experiments and model to extract pressure and compositional dependencies of thermal conductivity for the materials described herein. The results are used to help constrain models of the thermal properties of core and mantle materials.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMMR21C..03M
- Keywords:
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- 3909 Elasticity and anelasticity;
- MINERAL PHYSICSDE: 3924 High-pressure behavior;
- MINERAL PHYSICSDE: 3939 Physical thermodynamics;
- MINERAL PHYSICSDE: 3630 Experimental mineralogy and petrology;
- MINERALOGY AND PETROLOGY