Shape Memory Alloys – Frontier Developments

This article is mainly concerned with summarizing the recent discoveries in the deformation physics of shape memory materials with special emphasis on (1) the need to develop fundamental understanding of twinning, slip, shear/shuffle at atomic scales, martensite twin boundary topologies, atomic stacking and stable/metastable fault structures in shape memory materials, and (2) factors that result in performance degradation and accumulation of residual strains leading to fatigue and fracture. The fundamental understanding has benefitted from ab-initio modeling of atomic-electronic structures and the fault energetics of stable/metastable crystal structures. Especially, the slip phenomenon during nucleation of martensite needs further elaboration, as it exercises a strong influence on hysteresis, functional and mechanical degradation of the shape memory alloys Finally, we discourse on studies of fatigue and fracture of shape memory alloys from the literature and outline efforts to explain the complex experimental trends with respect to fatigue thresholds and nucleation. It is in the fatigue area where advancing the understanding of cycle by cycle accumulation of the irreversibilities, the strong orientation dependence of slip resistance (i.e., non-Schmid behavior), complex evolution of elastic moduli, strain sensitive evolution of interfaces with terrace-disconnection energy minimal nanostructures, and asymmetric stress-strain response will lead to the development of a comprehensive model. In the case of fracture, continuum models employ LEFM concepts and the results need corrections for martensite-induced tractions which are rather complex with localized variants. Overall, deeper scientific activities, with potential use of lattice scale theories and ab-initio based empirical atomic potentials, are paramount to advance the field to the next level.