Preface: thermomechanics and phase change

Phase transition phenomena arise in a variety of relevant real-world situations. For instance, one may think of melting and freezing in a solid-liquid system, evaporation, metal casting, solid-solid phase transitions, combustion, crystal growth, glass formation, phase transitions in polymers, plasticity, just to mention a few. Phase changes are very often triggered by thermomechanical actions. On the contrary, the overall thermomechanical behavior of a body is clearly influenced by its experienced phase change. Hence, Thermomechanics and phase change are to be regarded as twinned aspects of the same reality description.