Temperature dependence of the elastic moduli and damping for polycrystalline LiF-22 pct CaF2 eutectic salt

Young's and shear moduli and damping were measured for as-cast polycrystalline LiF-(22 mol pct)CaF2 eutectic specimens as a function of temperature using the piezoelectric ultrasonic composite oscillator technique. The shear modulus decreased with increasing temperature from about 40 GPa at 295 K to about 30 GPa at 1000 K, while the Young modulus decreased from about 115 GPa at 295 K to about 35 GPa at 900 K. These values are compared with those derived from the rule of mixtures using elastic moduli data for LiF and CaF2 single crystals. It is shown that, while the shear modulus data agree reasonably well with the predicted trend, there is a large discrepancy between the theoretical calculations and the Young modulus values, where this disagreement increases with increasing temperature.