Changes in Fe-Cu-Ni ternary couples were simulated with particular regard to the position of an arbitrary alloy feature (e.g. initial contact interface of the couple) as a function of time. The main purpose was to reproduce the marker shift in finite ternary couples. Experimental data for annealed (1273K, 100h) Fe/Cu-30Ni couples were used. Experimentally measured distributions of all of the elements following annealing were used to compute the intrinsic diffusivities of Fe, Ni and Cu. The calculated intrinsic diffusivities were then used to predict the distribution of the elements after annealing, the drift velocity and the marker shift as functions of time. Intrinsic diffusivities were calculated by using a gradient method that permitted acceleration of the computations. One simplification which was used was the assumption of compositional independence of the transport properties.

Kirkendall Shift in Multicomponent Systems. R.Bachorczyk, M.Danielewski, R.Filipek: Solid State Phenomena, 2000, 72, 153-6