INFLUENCES OF HEAT TREATMENT ON TRANSFORMATION BEHAVIORS OF NEAR-EQUIATOMIC POROUS NITI SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY

The pore characteristics and pore size distribution of porous near-equiatomic NiTi shape memory alloy fabricated by self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) are described in detail. The effects of different heat treatments on the transformation of porous NiTi alloy were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicate that heat treatment had strong influences on the transformation temperatures and latent heats of transformation. When the porous alloy was annealed at 648K and 748K for 3.6ks, two steps transformation including R transformation occurred during cooling and heating and the R transformation temperatures are lower than B2↔B19' transformation temperatures. However, no transformation was detected within the experimental temperature range if the porous alloy was solution treated at 1133K for 2.4ks. This novel phenomenon was the results of extensive Ti2Ni intermetallic compound precipitation. The transformation temperatures of porous NiTi alloy after annealing at 1323K for 3.6ks were much lower than those of the untreated alloy.