Dynamics of evolving phase boundaries in deformable continua

Recent studies of Gurtin [8,9,10], Angenent and Gurtin [4], and Gurtin and Struthers [15] form an investigation whose goal is a nonequilibrium thermodynamics of two-phase continua in which the interface is sharp and endowed with energy, entropy and superficial force. In all of these studies except the last the crystal is rigid, an assumption that forms the basis for a large class of problems discussed by material scientists, but there are situations in which deformation is the paramount concern, examples being shock-ind of Gurtin and Struthers, who consider deformable crystal-crystal systems with coherent interfaced transformations and mechanical twinning. Here I discuss the results of Gurtin and Struthers, who consider deformable crystal-crystal systems with coherent interface.