A conceptual approach for noncontact calorimetry in space

A concept is developed and described which allows to measure the heat capacity and the effective thermal conductivity of stable and undercooled liquid metals and alloys in an electromagnetic levitation apparatus. We propose to use an ac pulse heating method which is used nowadays as a standard technique for precision measurement of low temperature heat capacities. The ideal process parameters including the drop diameter D, temperature T, and frequency of measurement ω can be optimized when the following relations hold for the external and internal relaxation time constants τ1 and τ2, respectively: ωτ1≳10 and ωτ2<0.1. Then heat capacity data can be obtained with an accuracy of better than 1% with D about 5 to 10 mm, T between 1200 and 1800 K and ω between 0.1 and 1 Hz for typical metals and alloys.