REFINEMENT OF THE NEPHELINE DISCRIMINATOR: RESULTS OF A PHASE II STUDY

Twenty five glass compositions were selected for a Phase II study to assess the potential for reducing the conservatism in the nepheline discriminator. The glass compositions were restricted to regions that fell within the validation ranges of the DWPF PCCS models. In addition, the liquidus temperature model was used to restrict the glass compositions so that they could all be melted at the same temperature. The nepheline discriminator was used to force the glass compositions into regions where nepheline formation was predicted to occur. The glasses were fabricated in the laboratory and characterized for crystallization and chemical durability after both quenching and slow cooling. Chemical analysis showed that the fabricated glasses met the target compositions. Nepheline was identified in one of the quenched glasses and several of the CCC glasses. There was no clear relationship between the types of crystallization that occurred in a particular glass and its location on the Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-Na{sub 2}O-SiO{sub 2} ternary diagram. A partitioning algorithm was used to identify trends in crystallization behavior based on glass composition. Generally, for the CCC glasses MnO influenced the crystallization of spinels and B{sub 2}O{sub 3} and SiO{sub 2} influenced the crystallization of nepheline. Measured durability responses varied from acceptable to unacceptable depending on the glass composition and type and extent of crystallization that occurred. It was not possible to identify any linear effects of composition on chemical durability performance for this set of study glasses. The results were not sufficient to recommend modification of the current nepheline discriminator at this time. It is recommended that the next series of experiments continue to focus not only on compositional regions where the PCCS models are considered applicable (i.e., the model validation ranges), but also be restricted to compositional regions where acceptable glasses are predicted to be produced but are disallowed by the current nepheline discriminator. This may help identify a path for gaining access to glass compositions that are limited by only the nepheline constraint. Dependencies on cooling rates should also be evaluated. A better understanding of these regions, as well as the impacts of B{sub 2}O{sub 3} and CaO on nepheline crystallization, may allow for relaxation or refinement of the nepheline constraint and subsequently allow for higher Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} concentrations