Microstructural and Thermo-Mechanical Characterization of Cast NiTiCu20 Shape Memory Alloy
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
3.1. Thermal Characterization
3.2. Dynamic Thermal Mechanical Analysis
3.3. Microstructural Characterization
4. Discussion
5. Conclusions
- The thermo-mechanical condition of the NiTiCu20 provided by the induction melting process leads to the formation of several secondary phases which partially melt at lower temperatures with respect to the nominal alloy. Hence, the homogenization thermal treatments should be carefully optimized to avoid phases’ segregation and maintain the overall alloy composition. In the present study, 850 °C was chosen as thermal treatment temperature. The increase of the treatment time led to the increase of the enthalpy related to the TMT up to the value of the as-cast material.
- The excellent damping ability typical of this alloy was confirmed thanks to the presence of the various secondary phases and IF reaches values up to 0.13 in correspondence of TMT. The lowest damping performance was given by the sample thermally treated for the lowest time, i.e., the sample with the lowest transformation enthalpy.
- In order to identify and characterize the secondary phases, SEM and EDX compositional analyses were performed and four different phases were detected: a matrix phase with a nominal composition of the alloy, two Ti-rich phases with lower content of Ni and Cu, and a phase with the same content of Ti with respect to the matrix and an equal content of Ni and Cu.
- The investigation of the crystallographic structure of the different phases allowed the detection of three structures at room temperature: the expected martensite B19, the cubic NiTi2 phase, and the residual austenite B2. The distribution of the structures and their preferential orientation in correspondence to the different secondary phases is identified for the samples treated at 5 and 8 h but it is difficult to correlate the punctual analysis of the crystallographic structure to the damping ability of the material, which is a volumetric phenomenon that combines defects and interfaces between the phases and intrinsic phase contributions.
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Sample | Temperature | Time |
---|---|---|
TQ | - | - |
900C5h | 900 °C | 5 h |
850C5h | 850 °C | 5 h |
850C8h | 850 °C | 8 h |
850C24h | 850 °C | 24 h |
Sample | Ms (°C) | Mf (°C) | As (°C) | Af (°C) | ΔHCOOL (J g−1) | ΔHHEAT (J g−1) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
TQ | 80.1 | 73.2 | 78.8 | 84.8 | −9.6 | 11.9 |
900C5h | 73.4 | 63.5 | 71.2 | 79.7 | −8.0 | 9.6 |
850C5h | 77.7 | 67.0 | 74.2 | 82.1 | −9.0 | 10.8 |
850C8h | 76.7 | 68.6 | 75.1 | 81.6 | −9.4 | 11.2 |
850C24h | 76.2 | 69.6 | 75.2 | 80.5 | −9.9 | 11.9 |
Phase | Ti (at.%) | Ni (at.%) | Cu (at.%) |
---|---|---|---|
A | 50.6 (s.d. 0.2) | 27.8 (s.d. 0.9) | 21.6 (s.d. 0.7) |
B | 66.8 (s.d. 0.5) | 22.3 (s.d. 1.3) | 10.9 (s.d. 1.4) |
C | 51.9 (s.d. 1.3) | 23.5 (s.d. 1) | 24.5 (s.d. 1.4) |
D | 66.7 (s.d. 0.3) | 9.7 (s.d. 0.9) | 23.6 (s.d. 1.2) |
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Villa, F.; Nespoli, A.; Passaretti, F.; Villa, E. Microstructural and Thermo-Mechanical Characterization of Cast NiTiCu20 Shape Memory Alloy. Materials 2021, 14, 3770. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14143770
Villa F, Nespoli A, Passaretti F, Villa E. Microstructural and Thermo-Mechanical Characterization of Cast NiTiCu20 Shape Memory Alloy. Materials. 2021; 14(14):3770. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14143770
Chicago/Turabian StyleVilla, Francesca, Adelaide Nespoli, Francesca Passaretti, and Elena Villa. 2021. "Microstructural and Thermo-Mechanical Characterization of Cast NiTiCu20 Shape Memory Alloy" Materials 14, no. 14: 3770. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14143770