The role of Eshelby stress in composition-generated and stress-assisted diffusion (Q5944525)

This paper is a contribution to Eshelbian mechanics of chemo-mechanical processes. The key issue is the decomposition of total deformation gradient as the product of an elastic transformation and an eigentransformation. This decomposition enables the author to prove that the trace of Eshelby stress tensor is the chemical potential associated with interdiffusion. On the basis of this observation, the author derives the equations of linear chemo-elasticity and, as example, he solves the problem of spinodal decomposition of alloy solid/epifilm. The differences with Cahn theory are then pointed out. These differences are manifested in how the surface diffusion couples the substrate deformation. We remark that a similar kinematical decomposition has also been introduced in the theory of multiple configurations [see \textit{A. S. Wineman} and \textit{K. R. Rajagopal}, Arch. Mech. 42, 53-75 (1990; Zbl 0733.73001)].