On beams made of a phase-transforming material

This paper presents a theory for the mechanics of beams made of single crystals of shape memory alloys. The behavior of such beams can be quite unexpected and complicated due to the presence and propagation of phase boundaries. It is shown that the usual laws of mechanics do not fully determine the propagation of phase boundaries and that there is a need for additional constitutive information in the form of a kinetic relation. A simple experiment to measure this kinetic relation is proposed. Finally, a strategy to use such beams for propulsion at small scales is presented.