Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In chemistry, the lever rule is a formula used to determine the mole fraction (x i) or the mass fraction (w i) of each phase of a binary equilibrium phase diagram.It can be used to determine the fraction of liquid and solid phases for a given binary composition and temperature that is between the liquidus and solidus line.
In thermodynamics, the phase rule is a general principle governing multi-component, multi-phase systems in thermodynamic equilibrium.For a system without chemical reactions, it relates the number of freely varying intensive properties (F) to the number of components (C), the number of phases (P), and number of ways of performing work on the system (N): [1] [2] [3]: 123–125
The discontinuity in , and other properties, e.g. internal energy, , and entropy,, of the substance, is called a first order phase transition. [12] [13] In order to specify the unique experimentally observed pressure, (), at which it occurs another thermodynamic condition is required, for from Fig.1 it could clearly occur for any pressure in the range .
The phase diagram shows, in pressure–temperature space, the lines of equilibrium or phase boundaries between the three phases of solid, liquid, and gas. The curves on the phase diagram show the points where the free energy (and other derived properties) becomes non-analytic: their derivatives with respect to the coordinates (temperature and ...
At the peritectic decomposition temperature the compound, rather than melting, decomposes into another solid compound and a liquid. The proportion of each is determined by the lever rule. In the Al-Au phase diagram, for example, it can be seen that only two of the phases melt congruently, AuAl 2 and Au 2 Al, while the rest peritectically decompose.
The fourth condition (straight solidus/liquidus segments) may be relaxed when numerical techniques are used, such as those used in CALPHAD software packages, though these calculations rely on calculated equilibrium phase diagrams. Calculated diagrams may include odd artifacts (i.e. retrograde solubility) that influence Scheil calculations.
The question you might want to ask is: Is the phase rule about a point, or about a diagram? Is it just the lever rule that extends the point to the rest of the diagram? [Comment added by Geologist 12:40, 26 July 2009 (UTC)] This section only mentions one type of binary phase diagram, as an illustration of the working of the phase rule for C=2.
English: An phase diagram designed to explain the lever rule. Based on an image from Smith, William F.; Hashemi, Javad (2006), Foundations of Materials Science and Engineering (4th ed.), McGraw-Hill, p. 319, ISBN 0-07-295358-6 .