In this work we introduce a new system of partial differential equations as a simplified model for the evolution of reversible martensitic transformations under thermal cycling in low hysteresis alloys. The model is developed in the context of nonlinear continuum mechanics, where the developed theory is mostly static, and cannot capture the influence of dynamics on martensitic microstructures. First, we prove existence of weak solutions; secondly, we study the physically relevant limit when the interface energy density vanishes, and the elastic constants tend to infinity. The limit problem provides a framework for the moving mask approximation recently introduced by the author. In the last section we study the limit equations in a one-dimensional setting. After closing the equations with a constitutive relation between the phase interface velocity and the temperature of the one-dimensional sample, the equations become a two-phase Stefan problem with a kinetic condition at the free boundary. Under some further assumptions, we show that the phase interface reaches the domain boundary in finite time.
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