Fatigue microstructural evolution in pseudo elastic NiTi alloy

Shape memory property characterizes the behavior of many Ti based alloys (SMAs). This property is due to a metallurgical phenomenon, which allows to change the lattice structure without boundaries changing as a reversible transition. Equiatomic NiTi alloys are among the most industrially used SMAs: they are characterized by two different mechanical behaviors in terms of shape recovering: a shape memory effect (SME). This is obtained when the recovery of the initial shape takes place only after heating over a critical temperature, with a consequent crystallographic structure transition; a pseudoelastic effect (PE). This is obtained when the critical temperature is lower than environmental temperature. In this case, the recovery of the initial shape takes place only after unloading. In recent years, research relating to materials of shape memory has gone in the direction of application in many fields of engineering such as aerospace or mechanical systems. In this work the evolution of microstructural lattice has been studied taking in to account the effect of low cycles fatigue loads. Copyright (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.