Degradation of Functional Properties of Pseudoelastic NiTi Alloy Under Cyclic Loading: An Experimental Study

The influence of the cyclic loading on the functional properties of NiTi was studied. Cylindrical specimens with a diameter of 4 mm and a gage length of 12.5 mm were tested under uniaxial cyclic loading with control crosshead displacement at a temperature of 0°C. The dependences of the stress and strain range as well as dissipation energy on the number of loading cycles at different initial stress range were analysed. During the first 10 loading cycles, a rapid decrease in the strain range and energy dissipation was observed. Dissipation energy was invariant to the loading cycles’ number at N > 20 cycles and to the stress range that did not exceed the martensite finish stress level, was within the same scatter band and can be described by the single dependence. With the stress range growth at N < 20 cycles from 509 to 740 MPa, the value of dissipation energy increases and that of relative dissipation energy decreases. Loss coefficient, which characterises material damping ability, significantly decreases during the first 10 loading cycles and remains practically unchanged up to the failure of the specimens. At the stabilisation area, the loss coefficient is almost non-sensitive towards the stress range.