Issue 30

E. Sgambiterra et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 30 (2014) 167-173; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.30.22 168 the macroscopic response of NiTi alloys [12]. Even though these numerical methods represent useful design tools to simulate the macroscopic response of simple or complex SMA based systems, special care should be taken when they are used to study the local effects in the proximity of high stress concentration regions. In particular, it was demonstrated that the high values of local stresses arising in the crack tip region of NiTi alloys cause stress-induced phase transition mechanisms [13-30], which significantly affect the crack tip stress distribution and, consequently, the crack evolution under both static and fatigue loading conditions. Despite the increasing number of research activities on fracture and fatigue of NiTi alloys in recent years, much effort should be devoted for an effective understanding of the role of the phase transformations in the crack formation and propagation mechanisms and in the stress state generated at the crack tip. Within this context, the development and application of full field techniques to analyze the local transformation mechanisms near geometrical discontinuities and, in particular, in the crack tip region, represent a highly challenging scientific goal. For this purpose, synchrotron X-ray micro-diffraction (XRD) [13-15], infrared thermographic (IR) [16] and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) [18, 19] techniques were recently applied, to better understand the mechanisms of phase transformation in the notch and/or crack tip proximity. In particular, a pseudoelastic NiTi alloy for medical applications were analyzed in [13] by using miniature compact-tension (CT) specimens, which were directly obtained from thin-walled tubes, similar to those used for manufacturing self-expanding stents. XRD microdiffraction investigations of fatigue pre- cracked specimens revealed that the crack tip local strain are due to both B2 to B19’ transformation and to the subsequent loading of the martensitic phase. Strain and texture evolution near the crack tip of a martensitic NiTi alloy were analyzed in [14], by synchrotron X-ray experiments, after fatigue crack propagation in a compact-tension (CT) specimen; it was found that texture evolution is mainly due to detwinning, the main deformation mechanism in martensitic NiTi alloys. Both martensitic and austenitic alloys were analyzed in [15], by using miniaturized CT specimens [19] after fatigue crack propagation, which revealed the presence of detwinned martensite at the crack tip of both martensitic and austenitic specimens. An austenitic NiTi alloy was analyzed in [17] by DIC analysis of thin edge cracked specimen, which allowed direct measurement of the crack tip strain field related to stress-induced transformation. These experimental investigations, together with other several recent numerical [20-22] and analytical [23-30] studies, provide very useful information about the occurrence of crack tip transition mechanisms in NiTi alloys subjected to static and/or monotonic loads, and the effect of the operating temperature on the stress intensity factor (SIF) and on the size of the transformation region was also numerically investigated in [30]. However, the role of these mechanisms on the fracture properties on NiTi alloys is not yet completely defined, i.e. no reliable methodologies were developed for an effective design against fracture. In addition, the evolution of microstructural changes at the crack tip occurring during fatigue loading, i.e. the thermal and mechanical hysteretic behavior, was not yet investigated. This topic is of major concern as the hysteretic nature of phase transitions is expected to play a significant role on the crack growth mechanisms. In this work the stress intensity factor evolution in a NiTi pseudoelastic alloy was investigated by means of a full field experimental techniques In particular, DIC method was used to analyze the displacement field in the crack tip region by which, with a proper fitting procedure based on the William’s series expansion [31], the mode I stress-intensity factor (SIF) was evaluated. Different cyclic tests, a different operating temperatures, in the range 298-338 K, were performed and the effect of the temperature on the SIF was investigated. M ATERIAL AND METHODS commercial nickel-titanium sheet (thickness t =0.5 mm) with pseudoelastic properties at room temperature (Austenite finish temperature A f =286.7 K) was used in this investigation. Fig. 1a shows the isothermal ( T =298 K) stress strain (  ) response of the material obtained from a complete loading-unloading cycle up to a maximum deformation of about 6.2 %, corresponding to a complete stress-induced martensite transformation. The figure also reports the values of the main thermo-mechanical parameters of the alloy: transformation stresses (  s AM ,  f AM ,  s MA and  f MA ), tranformation strain (  L ), Young’s moduli of austenite and martensite ( E A and E M ) and Clausius-Clapeyron constants ( C A and C M ). Edge-notched tension specimens were cut from a commercial plate by electrical discharge machining (EDM) and a 0.1 mm EDM wire was used to machine the notch. The specimen surface has been properly treated in order to provide a suitable speckle pattern for using DIC, therefore, the specimens were not painted. A