Well-posedness of a phase transition model with the possibility of voids

The paper deals with a phase transition model applied to a two-phase system. There is a wide literature on the study of phase transition processes in case that no voids nor overlapping can occur between the two phases. The main novelty of our approach is the possibility of having voids during the phase change. This aspect is described in the model by the mass balance equation whose effects are included by means of the pressure of the system in the dynamical relations. The state variables axe the absolute temperature (whose evolution is ruled by the entropy balance equation), the strain tensor (satisfying a quasi-static macroscopic equation of motion), and the volume fractions of the two phases (whose evolutions are described by a vectorial equation coming from the principle of virtual power and related to the microscopic motions). Well-posedness of the initial-boundary value problem associated to the PDEs system resulting from this model is proved.