Micromechanical modeling of stress-induced phase transformations. Part 1. Thermodynamics and kinetics of coupled interface propagation and reorientation

The universal (i.e. independent of the constitutive equations) thermodynamic driving force for coherent interface reorientation during first-order phase transformations in solids is derived for small and finite strains. The derivation is performed for a representative volume with plane interfaces, homogeneous stresses and strains in phases and macroscopically homogeneous boundary conditions. Dissipation function for coupled interface (or multiple parallel interfaces) reorientation and propagation is derived for combined athermal and drag interface friction. The relation between the rates of single and multiple interface reorientation and propagation and the corresponding driving forces are derived using extremum principles of irreversible thermodynamics. They are used to derive complete system of equations for evolution of martensitic microstructure (consisting of austenite and a fine mixture of two martensitic variants) in a representative volume under complex thermomechanical loading. Viscous dissipation at the interface level introduces size dependence in the kinetic equation for the rate of volume fraction. General relationships for a representative volume with moving interfaces under piece-wise homogeneous boundary conditions are derived. It was found that the driving force for interface reorientation appears when macroscopically homogeneous stress or strain are prescribed, which corresponds to experiments. Boundary conditions are satisfied in an averaged way. In Part 2 of the paper [Levitas, V.I., Ozsoy, I.B., 2008. Micromechanical modeling of stress-induced phase transformations. Part 2. Computational algorithms and examples. Int. J. Plasticity (2008)], the developed theory is applied to the numerical modeling of the evolution of martensitic microstructure under three-dimensional thermomechanical loading during cubic-tetragonal and tetragonal-orthorhombic phase transformations.