Ternary systems topological transformation

The experimental investigations were and are the main sources of information about phase behavior in ternary systems. In the beginning of the twentieth century Smiths (1910, 1913, 1915) using the topological method and available experimental information has considered 12 versions of complete phase diagrams with various types of fluid phase behavior and solid phase transformations. But it was not a systematic classification. 

Representation of three-component systems as a set of quasi-binary cross-sections is not quite rigorous for the most real ternary mixtures because a ratio of second and third components in equibbrium phases is not usually constant. However, if we intend to study the phase behavior from the point of view of topological schemes, the sequence of binary phase diagrams of quasi-binary sections (including the sections through the ternary nonvariant points) give an exhaustive description of possible phase equilibria and phase transformations in ternary systems. 

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