Temperature evolution associated with phase transition from quasi static to dynamic loading

Thermo-mechanical coupling is an intrinsic property of first order martensitic transformation. In this paper, we study the temperature evolution during phase transition at a wider strain rates from quasi static to impact loading to reveal the thermodynamic nature of the strain rate effect of phase transition materials. Based on the laws of thermodynamics and the principle of maximum dissipated energy, a thermal-mechanically coupled model was proposed. The model shows that, in the quasi static case, the temperature profile grades around the moving phase boundary, while for the dynamic case, thermal response of the specimen can be reached homogeneously due to random nucleation. The predicted results of the model are in good agreement with the experimental results, suggesting that the interaction between the self-heating effect and the temperature dependence of phase transition behavior plays a leading role in the process of the transformation deformation mechanism associated with the loading rate.