An internally heated, rapid-quench, high-pressure vessel

A pressure vessel and furnace system were desigrred for rapid-quench operation while maintaining the advantages of sample size and hydrostatic loading inherent in an internally heated, Ar-medium vessel (IHPV). The rapid quench is achieved using the quench-wire technique common to atmospheric pressure quench furnaces; the sample capsules fall from their position in the furnace hot spot into room-temperature Ar gas at the bottom of the vessel chamber. The quench rate is several hundred degrees Celsius per second compared to a rate of about 3 °C/s in conventional IHPVs. The system operates at temperatures up to at least 1300 °C and pressures up to 1500 bars, conditions specifically chosen to study solubilities of H₂O, CO₂, and other volatiles in low-viscosity silicate melts that have shown severe quench effects in IHPVs having normal quench rates. Loading and unloading the pressure system is relatively simple and fast.