Platinum group metal particles aggregation in nuclear glass melts under the effect of temperature

Abstract The viscosity of simulated high level radioactive waste glasses containing platinum group metal particles is studied over a wide range of shear stress, as a function of the particles content and the temperature, thanks to a stress imposed rheometer, coupled to a high-temperature furnace. The system shows a very shear thinning behavior. At high shear rate, the system behaves as a suspension of small clusters and individual particles and is entirely controlled by the viscosity of the glass matrix as classical suspensions. At low shear rate, above a certain fraction in platinum group metal particles, the apparition of macroscopic aggregates made up of chains of RuO 2 particles separated by thin layers of glass matrix strongly influences the viscosity of the nuclear glass and leads, in particular, to the apparition of yield stress and thixotropic effects. The maximum size of these clusters as well as their effective volume fraction have been estimated by a balance between Van der Waals attractive forces and hydrodynamic forces due to shear flow. We showed experimentally and theoretically that this aggregation phenomenon is favored by an increase of the temperature, owing to the viscosity decrease of the glass matrix, leading to an unusual increase of the suspension viscosity.