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Departament de Fsica, Uni6ersitat de les Illes Balears, Carretera de Valldemossa, km 7.5., E-07071 Palma de Mallorca, Spain
b
Departament de Fsica i Enginyeria Nuclear, Uni6ersitat Polite`cnica de Catalunya, Diagonal 647, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain
Abstract
The changes in the martensitic transformation of a CuAlNiTi alloy hot-rolled at different temperatures have been studied
in detail, covering different aspects such as ageing in the parent phase at temperatures ranging between 250 and 350oC,
stabilisation of the martensite and betatization of the previously hot-rolled specimens. Besides the evolution of transformation
temperatures upon different thermal treatments, special attention has been paid to the changes in mechanical properties of the
alloy, such as elastic modulus and internal friction. These results are analysed in relation to the microstructural changes as
observed by transmission electron microscopy. 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Martensitic transformation; Shape memory alloys; CuAlNiTi; Thermal treatments; Mechanical properties
1. Introduction
A considerable interest exists towards shape memory
alloys transforming above 100oC, because of their
prospective applications. Among the Cu-based shape
memory alloys, the CuAlNi system offers the best
potential because of the high transformation temperatures that can be chosen while maintaining a better
thermal stability than for CuZnAl. However, polycrystalline CuAlNi displays a poor ductility which
can be improved by grain refinement as achieved
through Ti and/or B additions.
Ageing in the parent phase of CuAlNiTi alloys
leads to the formation of the g2 phase which, together
with the Ti-rich X-phase [1], affect the martensitic
transformation characteristics and specially the mechanical properties such as the internal friction (IF) and
elastic modulus (E). As a matter of fact, it has been
found that the presence of X-precipitates, which are not
affected by ageing, decrease the IF maximum occurring
during the martensitic transformation; this fact has
been explained by the decreasing mobility of the parent/martensite interfaces due to grain boundaries and
fine dispersion of X precipitates [1 3]. As for the
g2-phase precipitates, they are known to increase the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +34-971-173224; fax: + 34-971173426.
E-mail address: dfscsp0@ps.uib.es (C. Segu)
2. Experimental procedure
A polycrystalline alloy with a nominal composition
Cu -11.9% Al- 4.8% Ni- 1.0% Ti (wt.%) (nominal Ms of
100oC) was used in this study. Several ingots of the
alloy were hot-rolled in the same conditions at different
temperatures in the range between 600 and 850oC, but
a systematic study was performed on those hot rolled at
850 (alloy A) and 650oC (alloy B), which were representative of significantly different behaviours. Specimens of
those alloys were subjected to ageing at different temperatures in the parent and martensite phases performed in a melted salt bath. The martensitic
transformation was monitored by means of differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC; Perkin-Elmer DSC7) and
0921-5093/99/$ - see front matter 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 2 1 - 5 0 9 3 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 3 3 6 - 6
626
Table 1
Transformation characteristics of as-received alloys A and B; the transformation heat Q is averaged over the cooling and heating runs and IFmax,
IFint and DE/E correspond to the heating run
Alloy A
Alloy B
Mp (oC)
Ap (oC)
DT (K)
Q (J/g)
IFmax
IFint (K)
DE/E
108
164
130
193
22
29
7.9
6.9
0.15
0.08
0.29
0.32
0.27
0.08
627
Fig. 2. Ap, Mp and DT as a function of ageing time at different temperatures for alloy A (a) and B (b).
628
parentmartensite interfaces, causing a considerable reduction of the martensite plates size, while the small
precipitates are actually absorbed by the martensite
plates when they grow, a process which is energetically
expensive due to the accommodation of precipitates in
the martensite phase [8], and then limits the displacement of the interfaces during the oscillating stress. The
enlargement of the transformation temperature range
caused by precipitation of g2 and the decrease in strain
per oscillating cycle caused by the poor mobility of the
interfaces are responsible for the progressive disappearance of the E-modulus minimum.
629
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the partial financial support received from the DGES, research project PB950340.
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