Calculation of vacancy wind contributions in ternary diffusion

In the absence of kinetic cross interactions between diffusing components, intrinsic diffusion can be described by a simple atomic mobility model. For systems where the diffusional interactions among components cannot be ignored, the interactions can be related to a vacancy wind effect in which the intrinsic flux of a component is influenced by the net vacancy flux. Atomic mobilities are calculated at selected composition points on the diffusion paths of y-phase U-Pu- Zr diffusion couples investigated at 750 {degrees}C to assess the contribution by the vacancy wind effect to the intrinsic diffusion of the individual components. The results point to the possibility that a large vacancy wind contribution may cause a component to diffuse intrinsically up its own chemical potential gradient