Micromechanical modelling of superelasticity in shape memory alloys

Micromechanical methods developed to describe the thermomechanical behavior of solids are applied to phase transition related problem. Results obtained are compared with those obtained using a macroscopic phenomenological approach. This micromechanical analysis is based on a kinematical description of the physical strain mechanisms and a definition of a local thermodynamical potential. Volume fractions of the different variants of martensite are chosen as internal variables to describe the evolution of the microstructural state of the material. This analysis determines local constitutive equations for the behavior. Global relationships are obtained using a self consistent scheme. This approach gives results in good agreement with experimental observations performed on Cu-based Shape Memory alloys.