Evolution of the semi-major axis and eccentricity of the inner binary of an example system during the TMT phase and the subsequent GW inspiral. Different models are applied to the same system, as described in Sect. 2.3. The red shaded region indicates that the system undergoes BA. The green shaded region indicates that the system has formed a CBD. The yellow region implies that the mass transfer is non-conservative during the CBD phase, and the material is assumed to be lost via an isotropic outflow. The blue shaded region indicates that the inspiral of the inner binary is dominated by GW emission. Overlapping colours show that more than one of the aforementioned processes apply.