From the vibrational properties of silicate glasses to the viscosity of their parental melts: models and issues (Michele Cassetta, Università di Verona)

Abstract

Understanding how temperature and chemical composition affect melt’s viscosity is critical for both volcanic dynamics modeling and industrial glass production. Small changes, like nano-scaled crystallization, make viscosity measurements challenging. Our study introduces a method to estimate viscosity by analyzing vibrational dynamics of the melt’s parental glass. We found correlations between melt fragility, elastic moduli and glass’s boson peak frequencies, enabling a full understanding and prediction of the viscosity’s temperature-dependence. Our approach applies to various systems, including multiphase volcanic ones in which nanolites occur. This approach is as promising as it is problematic because, at present, its potential extension to nano-scale processes and their potential discrimination is still lacking.