Towards Optimal Bounds on the Recoverable Strains in Polycrystalline Shape Memory Alloys

Abstract : The set of recoverable (or stress-free) strains plays a central role in the peculiar properties of shape memory alloys. New upper bounds are presented for estimating the recoverable strains of polycrystalline shape memory alloys, in the finite strains setting. Those bounds take the texture of the polycrystal (i.e. the shapes, distribution and orientations of the grains) into account. A reference two-orientation problem is studied for investigating the optimality of the bounds proposed.