structural:scholar_edition, stylistic:tone, linguistic:translation, stylistic:style_transfer
Ternary phase diagrams

A system with three components is called a ternary system. At constant pressure the maximum number of independent variables is three – the temperature and two concentration values. For a representation of ternary equilibria a three-dimensional phase diagram is required. Often such a diagram is drawn with the composition as a horizontal plane and the temperature on an axis perpendicular to this plane. To represent composition in a ternary system an equilateral triangle is used, called Gibbs triangle (see also Ternary plot).

The temperature scale is plotted on the axis perpendicular to the composition triangle. Thus, the space model of a ternary phase diagram is a right-triangular prism. The prism sides represent corresponding binary systems A-B, B-C, A-C.

However, the most common methods to present phase equilibria in a ternary system are the following:1) projections on the concentration triangle ABC of the liquidus, solidus, solvus surfaces;2) isothermal sections;3) vertical sections.