A study was made of atomic transport in capillary-like media, such as fine pores or grain boundaries, with thicknesses that were above some critical value. Previous studies had analyzed the relationship between the diffusivity and viscosity of liquid metals in capillaries. One purpose of the present work was to consider the accuracy of calculation of self-diffusion coefficients when using known bulk properties of liquid metals, such as the viscosity, surface tension and the fundamental physical aspects of liquid behavior in a capillary. It was found that the lack of accuracy of surface tension data caused errors in the calculation of diffusion coefficients. Also, the main effect upon D appeared to arise from the molar (molecular) volume of liquid metals. This resulted from changes in the attractive portion, of the effective potential between atoms, for liquids with low molecular volumes.

J.W.Nowok: Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 1994, 42[12], 4025-8