An order-parameter-based theory as a regularization of a sharp-interface theory for solid-solid phase transitions (Q1382921)

The authors consider two models which represent a two-phase hyperelastic solid. The first model uses the sharp-interface theory in which the transition region between two phases is assumed to be a surface endowed with certain material properties. Bulk materials are hyperelastic materials in which the strain energy depends solely on deformation gradients. The interface is a material surface whose interfacial energy density is assumed to depend on tangential gradients and unit normal vector on the surface, through which the deformation stress and normal components of the configurational stress can be evaluated. The normal component of the internal configurational force density on the interface can be obtained through the kinetic coefficient which depends additionally on the normal velocity of the surface. The second model is based on the order-parameter-based theory in which a scalar-valued order parameter \(\varphi\) represents the transition from one phase to the other. The cases \(\varphi=0\) and \(\varphi=1\) represent two bulk materials. There is no sharp transition. However, the interface is now modelled by a narrow transition layer within which the order-parameter gradient is large in magnitude. The energy density of the material is assumed to be dependent on the deformation gradients, on the order-parameter and on its gradient through which the deformational stress and microstress throughout the material are obtainable. Internal microforce density is also a function of the material derivative of the order-parameter. The main purpose is to identify a subclass of constitutive relations of the order-parameter-based theory such that this theory becomes a regularization of the sharp-interface theory. Through an elaborate analysis such a subclass is found. Then an asymptotic expansion is performed in terms of a dimensionless modulus assumed to be very small, and it is proved that the sharp-interface theory is indeed an asymptotic limit of the order-parameter-based theory. The authors also provide an estimate of the transition thickness.