Measurement and calculation of specific heat for a liquid Ni-Cu-Fe ternary alloy

The specific heat of liquid Ni₆₀Cu₂₀Fe₂₀ ternary alloy was measured by electromagnetic levitation drop calorimetry in the temperature range from 1436 to 2008 K. The maximum undercooling achieved in experiment is 232 K (0.14 T_L). The specific heat was determined as 33.27 J · mol^-1 · K^-1 which varied slightly with temperature. Furthermore,the temperature dependence of the specific heat of normal and undercooled liquid Ni₆₀Cu₂₀Fe₂₀ alloy was calculated by molecular dynamics method with embedded-atom potential (EAM) and quantum Sutton-Chen many-body potential (QSC). The calculated results indicate that the specific heat increases slowly with the decrease of temperature. By comparing these theoretical calculations with experiments, we found that the QSC model is more reasonable for predicting the specific heat of liquid Ni₆₀Cu₂₀Fe₂₀ alloy than the EAM model.