Non-affine deformation in microstructure selection in solids II: Elastoplastic theory for the dynamics of solid state transformations

Abstract

We study the nucleation dynamics of a model solid state transformation and the criterion for microstructure selection. Using a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, we had shown that the dynamics of the solid is accompanied by the creation of transient non-affine zones (NAZ), which evolve with the rapidly moving transformation front. Guided by our MD results, we formulate a dynamical continuum theory of solid state transformation, which couples the elastic strain to the non-affine deformation. We demonstrate that our elastoplastic description recovers all qualitative features of the MD simulation. We construct a dynamical phase diagram for microstructure selection, including regimes where martensite or ferrite obtains, in addition to making several testable predictions.