Deformation mechanisms of a NiTi alloy under high cycle fatigue

In this paper, high-cycle fatigue mechanisms of a pseudoelastic NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) under different mean strains are investigated. The uni-axial cyclic tensile tests with small amplitude of 0.25% are operated at three different states, i.e. austenite/elastic region, austenite and martensite coexisted region and martensite/elastic region with a pre-strain. Mechanical results indicate that the cyclic deformation strain is mainly in the inhomogeneous deformation band when the sample cycling in the B2 + B19′ phase coexist status. Cyclic deformation in the B2 + B19’ phase showed cyclic hardening effect. With increasing of the mean strain, the saturation stress is decreased, and saturation rate is reduced. The mean strain effect on the high-cycle fatigue life of NiTi is attributed to the inhomogeneous transformation of martensite. High resolution electron microscopy (HREM) observations and atomic simulations showed that partial dislocations with the Burgers vectors of 1/2 are induced on (001)M twin planes, the interaction of dislocations and edge dislocations in martensite results in cyclic hardening in martensite. While cyclic softening in martensite at the upper plateau of stress–strain (S–S) curve is attributed to the grain reorientation/rotation phenomenon. It suggests that newly generated stress-induced martensite at the interface of martensite and austenite could increase the high-cycle fatigue of NiTi SMA