Strain-gradient-induced Effects in Palladium Alloy Membranes

There has been increasing appreciation over recent years of the importance of the studies reported by Gorsky in the 1930s concerning the influences of strain gradients on the processes of diffusion in metals (1-3). These strain gradients can, for example, be produced by mechanical bending. As a particular case of strain induced diffusion, evidence has been obtained from anelastic effects-such as elastic after effects and internal friction-that hydrogen contained in interstitial lattice sites can, as a consequence of bending deformations, preferentially diffuse from regions of relatively compressed interstitial sites, to regions of relatively expanded lattice sites.