The continuity conditions which existed across the junction between a grain boundary and a free surface were considered with respect to coupled surface diffusion, and grain-boundary diffusion, problems. A treatment of the continuity was proposed which formed the basis of a numerical procedure for treating an arbitrary network of grains which contained pores of arbitrary shape and size. This technique, when combined with a suitable time integration algorithm, could simulate physical processes such as powder sintering, diffusional void growth and creep crack propagation which were dominated by coupled diffusion mechanisms in many practical situations. Attention was here restricted to 2-dimensional problems, although the basic principles were also valid for 3-dimensional situations.

J.Pan, A.C.F.Cocks: Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 1995, 43[4], 1395-406