Impact of thermal activation on the growth dynamics of thermoelastic martensitic transformation

The dynamics of thermoelastic martensitic transformations (MTs) become not straightforward with lowering temperatures due to the manifestation of the thermal activation process. The author recently proposed a new concept of “viscosuperelasticity” of which mathematical expression for the thermal activation of habit plane motion enables to quantitatively reproduce the MT dynamics under both the isothermal and anisothermal (dynamic cooling/heating) conditions. In this study, the time-dependent evolution of MTs is evaluated with the concept of viscosuperelasticity for some representative cases of MT-hosting alloy systems. This concept enables seemingly strange low-temperature behaviors to be explained as manifestations of thermal activation. Furthermore, undiscovered exceptional dynamics are also predicted to occur. This study guides the way to manifest the impact of time from experimentally accessible MT behaviors and provides a systematic understanding of low-temperature MT dynamics. [Display omitted] •A new concept of viscosuperelasticity is introduced for martensitic transformation•Viscosuperelasticity explains time dependence of transformation hysteresis•Low-temperature sluggish dynamics of martensitic transformations are reproduced•The impact of time is visualized in time-temperature-transformation diagrams•Viscosuperelasticity predicts undiscovered low-temperature behaviors