The biased diffusive transport of solute to a crack was studied as an example of a complex trapping problem. A kinetic, lattice-gas Monte Carlo simulation and associated coupled rate equations, along with continuum solutions to a diffusive boundary-value problem, were employed to describe quantitatively solute transport near a crack. In a regime where the crack loading was dominated by an externally imposed tensile stress, the segregation behavior was obtained and interpreted in terms of the elastic fields generated by the crack. In a regime where solute loading of the crack became important, it was found that this loading enhanced segregation and led to small correlations in diffusive motion. Finally, the formulation of a diffusion equation that embodied these results was described.

Biased Diffusive Transport and Solute Trapping near a Crack. P.Kansuwan, J.M.Rickman, T.J.Delph: Physical Review B, 2007, 75[2], 024106 (10pp)