  From relaxation simulations of decoration-based quasicrystal structure models
using microscopically based interatomic pair potentials, we have calculated the
(usually neglected) phonon-phason coupling constant. Its sign is opposite for
the two alloys studied, i-AlMn and i-(Al,Cu)Li; a dimensionless measure of its
magnitude relative to the phonon and phason elastic constants is of order 1/10,
suggesting its effects are small but detectable. We also give a criterion for
when phonon-phason effects are noticeable in diffuse tails of Bragg peaks.
