The paper extends the authors' recent model for one-dimensional rate-dependent magneto-mechanical behavior of NiMnGa single crystals to account for temperature-dependent effects including austenite/martensite and ferro-/paramagnetic phase transitions. The magneto-mechanical model is based on the Helmholtz free energy landscape constructed for a meso-scale lattice element with strain and magnetization as order parameters. This two-dimensional energy landscape includes three paraboloidal wells representing the two easy-axis and one hard-axis martensite variants relevant for the structurally one-dimensional case. Phase transformations resulting from applied stresses and magnetic fields follow from a system of evolution laws based on the Gibbs free energy equations and the theory of thermally activated processes, which in the low-thermal-activation limit appropriately reproduce the athermal transformation behavior observed in these materials. The phase fractions subsequently determine the macroscopic strain and magnetization of a sample of NiMnGa by means of a standard averaging procedure. To account for the first-order phase transitions to austenite, additional temperature-dependent wells representing the stable states of austenitic NiMnGa are introduced into the Helmholtz energy landscape. The transition from ferromagnetic to paramagnetic states is modeled as a second order transformation based on the gradual degeneration of the ferromagnetic wells with increasing temperature.
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