A Potential Short-Cut to Quantitative Mineralogy
Date
2015-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering.
Abstract
Quantitative mineralogy is a critical aspect of material performance and is
typically obtained via quantitative X-ray diffraction (QXRD). This thesis proposes
that quantitative mineralogy can be reasonably predicted from readily measured
material properties (such and density and coefficient of thermal expansion) using
a volume based rule of mixtures (ROM) approach. Obtaining the mineralogy of a
two-component system is straightforward from a single property, but to obtain the
mineralogy of a three-component system requires two property measurements. It
should also be possible to use the starting chemistry as a constraint if the chemical
reactions and resulting reaction products are simple. The ROM approach has two
initial restrictions: (1) the difference of component property values should be
significantly different, (2) the properties of different phases should not increase
consistently. Other restrictions are possible, with the most obvious being the
potential contribution of anisotropy.
Three systems were evaluated to determine feasibility of this approach:
porcelain, mullite, and spinel. The predicted mineralogy was compared to results
obtained using QXRD via an internal standard method. Results show that the
predictions based on ROM approach match the QXRD results with approximately
a 95% confidence. It is proposed that this approach may predict the mineralogy
of systems composed of more than three components (n=3) using n-1 measured
properties or constraints (such as chemistry).
Description
Advisory committee members: Doreen Edwards, Dawei Liu. Dissertation completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Ceramic Engineering at the Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University
Type
Thesis