Surface Tension of Liquid Zirconium Considering Effect of Oxygen Dissolution from Measurement Atmosphere

The surface tension of liquid zirconium was measured using the oscillating droplet method with electromagnetic levitation while considering the effect of oxygen dissolution from the measurement atmosphere. When liquid zirconium was maintained at approximately 2300 K under the flow of an Ar-He gas at 2 L center dot min-1 with an oxygen partial pressure (Po2) of 10-2 Pa, the oxygen content (CO) remained stable even after 15 min, resulting in a constant surface tension. However, under the flow of an Ar-He-H2-CO2 gas, CO increased with time even when Po2 was 10-4 and 10-6 Pa. This was attributed to the gasphase equilibrium between H2 and CO2, which facilitated the continuous dissolution of atmospheric oxygen into liquid zirconium. Liquid zirconium was free from any contaminations due to chemical reactions with the supporting material or atmospheric oxygen, and its surface tension was expressed as sigma = 1495 - 0.1153 (T - 2128) [10-3N center dot m-1].