Effect of Annealing on the Transformation Behavior and Mechanical Properties of Two Nanostructured Ti-50.8at.%Ni Thin Wires Produced by Different Methods

Abstract

A Ti-50.8at.%Ni wire produced using a co-drawing method and a commercial Ti-50.8at.%Ni wire were annealed between 450°C and 700°C. Grains with diameter less than 100nm were revealed by TEM for both wires before annealing treatment. However, the microstructural heterogeneity of the co-drawn wire is more obvious than that of the commercial wire. The transformation behavior and mechanical properties of both wires were found to be sensitive to the annealing temperature. Multi-stage martensitic transformation was observed in the co-drawn wire, compared with the one-stage A↔M transformation in the commercial wire after annealing at 600°C for 30min. Moreover, the ultimate tensile stress and plateau stress of the commercial wire were found to be higher than that of the co-drawn wire under the same annealing conditions. The differences of total elongation, plateau strain and pseudoelastic recoverable strain between the commercial wire and the co-drawn wire were also observed. The differences of the transformation behavior and mechanical properties between the commercial wire and the co-drawn wire are attributed to the microstructural difference between these two wires.