The Influence of Solution Treatments on the Microstructure, Phase Transformation Behavior, and Superelastic Characteristics of Nitinol Synthesized by Plasma Arc Deposition

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the effect of solution treatment time on the Ti2Ni second phase morphology, phase transformations, mechanical properties and superelastic behavior of plasma arc deposited (PAD) nitinols. The results demonstrate that the Ti2Ni second phases are significantly affected by the solution treatment time. The Ti2Ni second phase is dissolved into the TiNi matrix phase gradually, and its size and volume fraction also gradually decreases with increasing solution treatment time. Additionally, the solution treatment time exhibits a visible influence on the phase transformation, mechanical properties and superelasticity of the PAD nitinol, but the degree of influence depends on the size, volume fraction and distribution of the Ti2Ni second phase. With increasing solution treatment time, the phase transformation temperatures gradually increase, and the phase transformation peaks decrease in width and become sharp with a single transformation. Besides, the compressive strength first increases and then decreases, while the plasticity increases with solution treatment time increases from 0 to 8 h. Moreover, the superelastic stability of the PAD nitinol is improves as the solution treatment time increases from 0 to 6 h and then decreases. This phenomenon is closely related to the critical stress for dislocation slip, which depends on the change in the Ti2Ni second phase.