In-Situ Fracture Observation and Fracture Toughness Analysis of Ni-Mn-Ga-Fe Ferromagnetic Shape Memory Alloys

Abstract

The fracture property improvement of Ni-Mn-Ga-Fe ferromagnetic shape memory alloys containing ductile γ particles was explained by direct observation of microfracture processes using an in-situ loading stage installed inside a scanning electron microscope (SEM) chamber. The Ni-Mn-Ga-Fe alloys contained a considerable amount of γ particles in β grains after the homogenization treatment at 1073 K to 1373 K (800 °C to 1100 °C). With increasing homogenization temperature, γ particles were coarsened and distributed homogeneously along β grain boundaries as well as inside β grains. According to the in-situ microfracture observation, γ particles effectively acted as blocking sites of crack propagation and provided the stable crack growth, which could be confirmed by the R-curve analysis. The increase in fracture resistance with increasing crack length improved overall fracture properties of the Ni-Mn-Ga-Fe alloys. This improvement could be explained by mechanisms of blocking of crack propagation and crack blunting and bridging.