The mechanical properties of grain refined β- cuaini strain-memory alloys

A study has been made of the effect of grain refinement on the mechanical and the strain-memory properties of β-CuAlNi alloys. Addition of 0.5 pct Ti to CuAINi decreased the grain growth rate of the beta phase significantly. This appeared to be due mainly to the small fraction of the titanium in solid solution in the β-CuAlNi. By controlled annealing, a grain size as small as 15 μrn could be obtained, though some second phase γ2 was present due to incomplete precipitate dissolution. Stress-strain curves for most specimens in both the strain-memory and pseudoelastic states showed a three-stage characteristic with a region of lower slope between two regions of higher modulus. It was found that σ1, (the transition stress between stages 1 and 2) and (dσ/dε@#@) (the slope of stage 2) increased with grain size according to a (g.s.)-1/2 relationship. The ultimate tensile strength and strain to fracture also followed a similar Hall-Petch relationship. The alloys showed higher strength in the martensitic state than in the pseudoelastic one. The presence of second-phase particles had no significant effect on the mechanical properties and martensite deformation behavior. Fracture strains as high as 7 pct were obtained at the finest grain sizes. It was found that the strain-memory and pseudoelastic recovery properties were not affected significantly by decreasing grain size and the presence of second phase particles. Maximum recovery strains of 6.5 pct were obtained in fine grain samples.