A uniaxial constitutive model for superelastic NiTi SMA including R-phase and martensite transformations and thermal effects

The well-known martensitic transformation is not always the unique solid-solid phase change in NiTi shape memory alloys (SMA). For this material, R-phase can occur from both austenite and martensite. In some applications, macroscopic strain of the material can be limited to 2%. In these cases, R-phase contribution can not be neglected anymore when compared with martensite. Furthermore, different thermomechanical couplings have to be taken into account to carefully predict strain rate effects and to better describe application conditions. In this paper, a new model taking into account various phase transformations with thermomechanical couplings is presented. This model is based on several transformation criteria. In most applications, SMA are used as wires, submitted to tensile-tensile loadings, in the superelasticity working range. Consequently, a uniaxial reduction of the model is presented for its simplicity. A thermodynamic framework is proposed. It enables to describe the internal variables evolution laws. The simple and fast identification process of model parameters is briefly presented. To verify the validity of the proposed model, simulation results are compared with experimental ones. The influences of testing temperature and strain amplitude on the material behavior is discussed. The damping capacity is also studied, using an energy-based criterion. (paper)