Kinetics of structural relaxation of glass-forming melts

This is a review of current knowledge on the kinetics of relaxation of glass-forming melts. The kinetics of the relaxation process is of prime importance for the properties of glasses. A number of approaches describing the structural relaxation of glasses are discussed. The aim is to predict the form of the relaxation function and the temperature dependence of the characteristic time for structural relaxation tau(r). Important information on the relaxation behaviour of glasses can be obtained by following the dependence of the glass transition temperature T-g on the heating rate and the dependence of T-f on the cooling rate.