On the Influence of the Heat Treatment Temperature on the Superelastic Compressive Behavior of the Ni-Rich NiTi Shape Memory Alloy

In this paper, the relationship between the heat treatment temperature and the thermomechanical behavior of the Ni-rich NiTi shape memory alloy was experimentally investigated. Thermal analysis was performed through a differential scanning calorimetry experiments, and the NiTi superelastic effect was exhibited through loading/unloading compression cycle. It was found that the transformation temperatures and the compressive mechanical response are strongly affected by the heat treatment temperatures. The stressinduced phase transformation was characterized through the relationship between the heat treatment temperature and transformation stresses, elastic moduli and the deformation level upon loading. Subsequently, the evolution of the mechanical hysteresis loops and the mechanical dissipated energy was discussed. The obtained findings are supported by hardness measurements. To better understand the global tendency of the various phase transformation stages, the critical stress-temperature diagram was provided for different proposed heat treatment temperatures.