A structured continuum modelling framework for martensitic transformation and reorientation in shape memory materials.

Models for shape memory material behaviour can be posed in the framework of a structured continuum theory. We study such a framework in which a scalar phase fraction field and a tensor field of martensite reorientation describe the material microstructure, in the context of finite strains. Gradients of the microstructural descriptors naturally enter the formulation and offer the possibility to describe and resolve phase transformation localizations.