Issue 30

E. Sgambiterra et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 30 (2014) 167-173; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.30.22 167 Focussed on: Fracture and Structural Integrity related Issues Stress induced martensite at the crack tip in NiTi alloys during fatigue loading E. Sgambitterra, L. Bruno, C. Maletta Dept. of Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering, University of Calabria, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy. esgambitterra@unical.it A BSTRACT . Crack tip stress-induced phase transformation mechanisms in nickel-titanium alloys (NiTi) were analyzed by Digital Image Correlation (DIC), under fatigue loads. In particular, Single Edge Crack (SEC) specimens, obtained from a commercial pseudoelastic NiTi sheet, and an ad-hoc experimental setup were used, for direct measurements of the near crack tip displacement field by the DIC technique. Furthermore, a fitting procedure was developed to calculate the mode I Stress Intensity Factor (SIF), starting from the measured displacement field. Finally, cyclic tensile tests were performed at different operating temperature, in the range 298-338 K, and the evolution of the SIF was studied, which revealed a marked temperature dependence . K EYWORDS . Shape Memory alloys; Fracture; Digital Image Correlation; Stress Intensity Factor. I NTRODUCTION n last decades, shape memory alloys (SMAs), and in particular the Nickel Titanium-based ones (NiTi), received big attention from scientific and engineering communities thanks to their unique characteristics, namely shape memory effect (SME) and superelastic effect (SE) [1]. In particular, these properties allow large recoverable strains or large induced internal forces due to a reversible solid-state phase transformation between austenite and martensite; this transformation can be activated by a temperature variation (TIM, thermally induced martensite) or by the application of external forces (SIM, stress-induced martensite). Due to these interesting features, as well as to their good mechanical performances and biocompatibility, NiTi alloys have seen growing use in many branches of engineering and medicine [2- 3]. As a direct consequence of this interest, many studies were carried out to better investigate on the thermo-mechanical behavior of SMAs, in terms of both SME and SE [1]. Their mechanical properties were investigated using tensile (e.g. [4–5]) and fatigue testing (e.g. [6–11]), however, many aspects are still unknown, especially because the hysteretic stress and/or thermally induced phase transformations significantly affect the damage mechanisms occurring under fatigue loadings, i.e. the crack formation and propagation mechanisms. From a materials science point of view, an accurate knowledge of these topics is essential for predicting the functional and structural life of damaged structures as well as their failure modes, with the aim to improve the overall performances of NiTi-based components or structures. The fracture behavior of austenitic NiTi alloys strongly depends on the SIM transformation which occurs in the crack tip region, as a consequence of the high values of local stresses. As a direct consequence of the marked non-linear and hysteretic behavior, classic elastic and/or elastic-plastic theories cannot be directly applied to SMAs. The constitutive laws implemented in commercial finite element software are based on phenomenological approaches and on theory of plasticity, i.e. they use plasticity-like concepts to describe the effects of phase transformation mechanisms on I