Determination of Preferred Morphology of Self-Accommodating Martensite in Ti-Nb-Al Shape Memory Alloy Using Optical Microscopy

Abstract

The preferred morphology of self-accommodation (SA) microstructure in a Ti-Nb-Al shape memory alloy was investigated by the evaluation of the frequency distribution of the habit plane variant (HPV) clusters using in-situ optical microscopy. The observed HPV clusters were classified into two different types; one is the cluster connected by the {111}o type I twin (Type I) and the other is connected by the <211>o type II twin (Type II). The total fractions of the Type I and Type II clusters were 52% and 48%, respectively. The incompatibility at junction planes (JPs) of the two clusters was almost the same among these clusters. However, most of the larger martensite plates (> 50μm) formed Type I cluster at the later stage of the reverse martensitic transformation, i.e., at the early stage of the forward transformation upon cooling. The ratio of the fraction of Type I and II is almost 2:1 at the early stage of the forward transformation.