Transformation front kinetics in deformable ferromagnets

Magnetic shape-memory alloys couple magnetization with mechanical deformation and can undergo structural phase transitions. In these materials, moving phase boundaries separate different phases, and their motion depends on both magnetic fields and mechanical stresses. The paper aims to model how these phase boundaries propagate at the continuum scale. It identifies three needed components: coupled magnetic-mechanical bulk equations, a rule for phase-boundary velocity based on governing factors, and a computational method to track moving interfaces. It focuses on deriving the thermodynamic driving force for transformation fronts in a general magneto-mechanical setting. It also adapts the cut-finite-element method to handle propagating interfaces efficiently without changing the finite-element mesh, and applies the approach to qualitative modeling of magneto-mechanics in magnetic shape-memory alloys.