Besides bubbles and solid inclusions, cords for a very important type of glass fault. With ever increasing demands on the optical quality of glass products, notably those of flat glass products and TV and monitor screens, the behaviour of cords in the glass melt has become a very important theme. However, the quantitative description of cord deformation and dissolution behaviour in the melt is still not well established. This presentation contributes to the description of the cord dissolution process in the glass melt. A model is presented which describes the simultaneous dissolution of a number of cords by diffusion. Recent advances in the methods to derive the diffusion coefficients of glass melt components are discussed. The model and the diffusion coefficients are meant to be used in the 3D-models describing the complete glass melting process.
