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Solutions To The Diffusion Equation
Solutions To The Diffusion Equation
Diffusion Equation
3.205 L3 11/2/06 1
"2 c
Figure removed due to copyright restrictions.
"c See Figure 4.1 in Balluffi, Robert W., Samuel M. Allen, and W. Craig Carter.
=D 2 Kinetics of Materials. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2005. ISBN: 0471246891.
"t "x
!
condition and two boundary conditions.
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Steady-State Diffusion
• When the concentration field is independent of
time and D is independent of c, Fick’s second
law is reduced to Laplace’s equation, "2 c = 0
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• Examples of steady-state profiles
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Error function solution…
• Interdiffusion in two semi-infinite bodies
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!
• erf (x) is known as the error function and is
defined by 2 x $% 2
erf x " ( ) e d% &
# 0
• An example:
) = 0;c( x > 0, 0) = 1;c("#,t ) = 0; c(#,t ) = 1; D = 10"16
c( x < 0, 0!
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Superposition of solutions
• When the diffusion equation is linear, sums of
solutions are also solutions. Here is an example
that uses superposition of error-function solutions:
Figure removed due to copyright restrictions.
See Figure 4.4 in Balluffi, Robert W., Samuel M. Allen, and W. Craig Carter.
Kinetics of Materials. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons, 2005. ISBN: 0471246891.
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• Superposed error functions, cont’d
c0 ) # x + "x 2 &,
cleft = +1+ erf % (.
2* $ 4Dt '-
c0 ) # x / "x 2 &,
cright = / +1+ erf % (.
2* $ 4Dt '-
and their sum
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!
• Superposed error functions, cont’d
An example:
c("#,t ) = 0; c(#,t ) = 0; c( x $ "%x / 2, 0) = 0;c("%x / 2 < x < %x / 2) = 1;
c( x & %x / 2, 0) = 0;%x = 2 '10"6 ; D = 10"16
• Application to
problems with
zero-flux plane
at surface x = 0
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• Movie showing time dependence of superimposed
erf solutions…
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The “thin-film” solution
• The “thin-film” solution can be obtained from the
previous example by looking at the case where Δx
is very small compared to the diffusion distance,
x, and the thin film is initially located at x = 0:
N # x 2 ( 4 Dt )
c( x,t ) = e
4 "Dt
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Diffusion in finite geometries
• Time-dependent diffusion in finite bodies can
soften be solved using the separation of variables
technique, which in cartesian coordinates leads to
trigonometric-series solutions.
A solution of the form
c( x, y, z,t ) = X ( x) "Y ( y) " Z ( z) " T (t )
is sought.
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• Substitution into Fick’s second law gives two
ordinary-differential equations for one-
dimensional diffusion:
dT
= "#DT
dt
d2X
2
= "#X
dx
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• Example: degassing a thin plate in a vacuum
with 2c0
L
$ #'
an =
L
* sin&%n" L )( d#
! 0
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!
• degassing a thin plate, cont’d
!
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Other useful solution methods
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