The heat capacity of Liquid Al-La-Ni alloys was measured using an adia
batic calorimeter. The heat capacities C-p(x,T) exhibit large temperat
ure and composition dependences. The results indicate the existence of
a maximum in the C-p(T)-curve in the undercooled melt. An association
model was applied to calculate the thermodynamic mixing functions of
ternary liquid Al-La-Ni alloys using the model parameters of the three
Limiting binary systems and assuming an additional ternary associatio
n reaction. The calculations show a good agreement with the experiment
al enthalpy of mixing and the C-p(x,T)-data. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science
B.V.