EFFECT OF HEAT TREATMENTS ON THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND TRANSFORMATION CHARACTERISTICS OF TiNiPd SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY THIN FILMS

Microstructure and phase transformation behaviors of the film annealed at different temperatures were studied by X-ray diffractometry （XRD）, transmission electron microscopy and differential scanning calorimeter （DSC）. Also tensile tests were examined. For increasing annealed temperature, multiple phase transformations, transformations via a B19-phase or direct martensite/austenite transformtion are observed. The TiNiPd thin film annealed at 750℃ had relatively uniform martensite/austenite transformtion and shape memory effect. Martensite/austenite transformtion was also found in strain-temperature curves. Subsequent annealing at 450℃ had minor effect on transformation temperatures of Ti-Ni-Pd thin films but resulted in more uniform transformation and improved shape memory effect.

Cooling rate effects on the structure and transformation behavior of Cu-Zn-Al shape memory alloys

Different fragments of a hot-rolled and homogenized Cu–Zn–Al shape memory alloy（SMA） were subjected to thermal cycling by means of a differential scanning calorimetric（DSC） device. During thermal cycling, heating was performed at the same constant rate of increasing temperature while cooling was carried out at different rates of decreasing temperature. For each cooling rate, the temperature decreased in the same thermal interval. During each cooling stage, an exothermic peak（maximum） was observed on the DSC thermogram. This peak was associated with forward martensitic transformation. The DSC thermograms were analyzed with PROTEUS software： the critical martensitic transformation start（Ms） and finish（Mf） temperatures were determined by means of integral and tangent methods, and the dissipated heat was evaluated by the area between the corresponding maximum plot and a sigmoid baseline. The effects of the increase in cooling rate, assessed from a calorimetric viewpoint, consisted in the augmentation of the exothermic peak and the delay of direct martensitic transformation. The latter had the tendency to move to lower critical transformation temperatures. The martensite plates changed in morphology by becoming more oriented and by an augmenting in surface relief, which corresponded with the increase in cooling rate as observed by scanning electron microscopy（SEM） and atomic force microscopy（AFM）.

Shape Memory Behavior of [111]-Oriented NiTi Single Crystals After Stress-Assisted Aging

The shape memory behavior of [111]-oriented Ni_（51）Ti_（49） （at.%） single crystals was investigated after stressassisted aging at 500 °C for 1.5 h under a compressive stress of-150 MPa.It was found that a single family of Ni_4Ti_3 precipitates with two crystallographically equivalent variants was formed after aging under compressive stress.Stressassisted aging resulted in tensile two-way shape memory effect strain of 1.56% under-5 MPa.Thermal cycling under-600 MPa resulted in a transformation strain of-2.15%,while the subsequent thermal cycling under-5 MPa resulted in a tensile two-way shape memory effect strain of 2.2%.

Stress-Induced Martensitic Transformation of Zr_(50)Cu_(25)Ni_(10)Co_(15) Nanocrystals Embedded in an Amorphous Matrix

The stress induced martensitic phase transformation of spherical ZrCu nanocrystals embedded in an amorphous matrix was studied in this paper. Microstructural observations revealed that the martensitic transformation of the nanocrystal was hindered by the surrounding amorphous coating. The existence of two-step transformation from the austenite phase（B2） to the base structure martensite（B19＇） and finally to the most stable superstructure martensite（Cm） was also demonstrated. The Cm martensite with（021） type I twinning symmetrically accommodation was surrounded by the B19＇ martensite with dislocation morphologies.