On the specific heat and thermal diffusivity of CGI and SGI cast irons

Abstract

The specific heat and thermal diffusivity of Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI) and Spheroidal Graphite Iron (SGI) were measured at temperatures ranging between 373 and 773 K (100 and 500 °C) using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and between 298 and 773 K (25 and 500 °C) using the laser flash method, respectively. Specific heat increased with increasing amounts of graphite and pearlite, as well as with Si content. As a recommended value of the specific heat for fully ferritic high-silicon SGI, the following relation was suggested:

where T is the temperature in Celsius, is the mass% of Si, and f_g is the area fraction of graphite (%). The thermal diffusivity of cast irons tends to increase with increasing amounts of graphite, and decrease with greater nodularity. It was found that nodularity had a strong influence on thermal diffusivity in the nodularity range of 15–30%.

Keywords:

• Specific heat capacity
• thermal diffusivity
• high-silicon cast iron
• differential scanning calorimetry
• laser flash method