Numerical and analytical calculations were made of concentrations, stress distributions, Kirkendall shifts and specimen curvatures in thin-sheet diffusion couples. It was shown that the concentration distribution was insensitive to the boundary conditions (bent or planar sample) and was affected mainly by stresses, which affected the generalized diffusion potential. The stress distributions were different for bent and planar samples, and a cut-off effect which was caused by dislocation glide was also observed. It was found that the Kirkendall shift obeyed a parabolic law only in the limit of high creep rates. It was shown that the sample curvature which was caused by diffusion stresses was proportional to the annealing time and to differences in the intrinsic diffusion coefficients.

I.Daruka, I.A.Szabó, D.L.Beke, C.Cserháti, A.Kodentsov, F.J.J.Van Loo: Acta Materialia, 1996, 44[12], 4981-93