A RIEMANN PROBLEM FOR AN ELASTIC BAR THAT CHANGES PHASE

This paper is concerned with the dynamics of an elastic bar that can undergo reversible stress-induced phase transformations. We consider a Riemann problem in which the initial strains belong to a single metastable phase and prove uniqueness of solution that satisfies a nucleation criterion and a kinetic law at all subsonic and sonic phase boundaries. This paper generalizes the results of [3]; the authors of [3] considered a piecewise-linear material for which no wave fans exist, shock waves always travel at the acoustic speed, and shock waves are dissipation-free. The material model of the present paper does not suffer from these degeneracies.