Effect of quenching temperature on reversible martensitic transformation in a Cu–Al–Be alloy

Abstract

Quenched martensitic Cu–Al–Be alloys can exhibit normal martensite stabilization and higher-temperature ‘hyperstabilization’. These transient effects are eliminated by heating to reform the parent phase. The martensitic transformation then becomes ‘normalized’, occurring without stabilization, in a reproducible, reversible manner with a small transformation hysteresis. Nevertheless, the current work shows that the initial quenching conditions exert an ongoing influence on the characteristics of the normalized (unstabilized), reversible martensitic transformation, probably through the presence of residual quenching stresses.