Modeling phase transformation kinetics for metals

Some metals undergo solid-solid phase transformations at high pressure, i.e. their crystal structure changes to a more compact one which is accompanied by a sudden reduction in volume. Under shock loading, a metal can (partially) transform to the high pressure phase and back, which can have a strong influence on the extent of damage that can occur. Examples include the transition of face-centered cubic (alpha) iron to hexagonal close-packed (epsilon) iron at pressures of around 13 GigaPascal (GPa), or the transition of beta to gamma tin at roughly 9.4 GPa. Due to the time the phase transition takes, the pressure at which it completes depends on the loading rate. A good understanding of the underlying dynamics, however, is lacking — a gap we aim to fill with this work.