Metastable effects on martensitic transformation in SMA: Part III. Tentative temperature effects in a NiTi alloy

Abstract

The applicability of shape memory alloys (SMA) for dampers in civil engineering requires guaranteed behavior with well controlled or irrelevant changes after several years of inactivity and/or under the action of daily or seasonal temperature effects. The long time analysis of the aging temperature effects on a NiTi alloy shows similar behavior to other SMA but with higher time constants at temperatures near 373 K: 1.9 days at 410 K and near 100 days at 363 K with an activation energy value near 12500 K (RT=104 kJ mol-1). At the present state of the art, the measurements show that the change of transformation temperatures under the action of the external temperature (or 'room temperature' change) is close to 15 K. The direct use of the as furnished material can suffer relevant changes of working properties in devices under the action of direct sunlight or high room temperature working conditions. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media LLC.