Experimental investigation on transformation, reorientation and plasticity of Ni₄₇Ti₄₄Nb₉ SMA under biaxial thermal–mechanical loading

The constitutive behavior of shape memory alloy (SMA) Ni₄₇Ti₄₄Nb₉ specimens subjected to different thermal–mechanical loading histories was investigated experimentally. This involved the application of strain by different proportional or non-proportional paths in the biaxial ϵ−γ plane at −60 °C (M_s + 30 °C), the interaction between stress-induced martensitic transformation, reorientation and plastic deformation, temperature-induced reverse martensitic transformation and strain recovery. The results show that the equivalent stress–strain curves, as well as the pure shear and pure tensile curves, depend strongly on the thermal–mechanical loading history. For specimens deformed previously to the same equivalent strains by different paths, the equivalent recovery strains after unloading are similar, as are the spans between the reverse transformation start and final temperatures. The activated martensite variants depend strongly on loading history. The recovery of the axial strain component and that of the shear strain component due to reverse transformation occur synchronously and develop along the shortest path in the ϵ−γ plane. The results may provide some new and useful information on the effects of transformation, plasticity and loading paths for further studies and applications of such materials. (paper)