The thermal conductivity of iron under the Earth's inner core pressure

Abstract

The thermal conductivity of ε-iron at high pressure and high temperature is a key parameter to constrain the dynamics and thermal evolution of the Earth’s core. In this work, we use first-principles calculations to study the Hugoniot sound velocity and the thermal transport properties of ε-iron. The total thermal conductivities considering lattice vibration is 200 W/mK at the Earth’s inner core conditions. The suppressed anharmonic interactions can significantly enhance the lattice thermal conductivity under high pressure, and the contribution of the lattice thermal conductivity should not be ignored under Earth's core conditions.