Applying infrared thermography to analyse martensitic microstructures in a Cu-Al-Be shape-memory alloy subjected to a cyclic loading

► Phase transformation in a SMA single crystal is studied by infrared thermography. ► Under small cyclic loading, heat source fields are deduced from temperature fields. ► Fields of latent heat source enabled us to localize the phase transformation zones. ► The thermoelastic coupling effect is also revealed in austenite and martensite. ► An interpretation in terms of martensitic microstructure is deduced.