Studies were made of the interaction between chemical stresses and diffusion. A new relationship between hydrostatic stress and the concentration of solute atoms was established. For a solid free of the actions of body force, the Laplacian of the hydrostatic stress was proportional to the Laplacian of the concentration of solute atoms. That is, deviation of the hydrostatic stress from its local average was proportional to the deviation of the local concentration of solute atoms. A general relationship among the surface concentration of solute atoms, normal stress and surface deformation of a solid was then derived, in which the normal stress was dependent upon the mean curvature of the undeformed surface and tangential components of the surface displacement. A closed-form solution of the steady-state concentration of solute atoms in a thin plate was obtained. It was found that the linear distribution of solute atoms in the plate was non-existent, due to the interaction between chemical stresses and diffusion.

Interaction between Diffusion and Chemical Stresses. F.Yang: Materials Science and Engineering A, 2005, 409[1-2], 153-9