On kinetics of hysteresis

An initiation criterion and a kinetic relation describing hysteresis in shape memory alloys consistent with non-equilibrium thermodynamics are proposed. The initiation of phase transition begins always at zero driving force, defined as the negative derivative of free energy with respect to the volume fraction of high strain phase. The kinetic relation is obtained from the dissipation potential which is proportional to the magnitude of the volume fraction rate times the newly formed volume fraction. The proposed theory turns out to be rate-independent, but history dependent, and can describe all features of hysteresis loops observed in experiments.