Thermoelastic martensitic phase transition in Ni-Ti based shape memory alloys enables designing micro- and nanotools that are controlled by small changes in temperature (~10°С). This makes it feasible creating a new generation of complex microrobotical systems for manipulation and treatment of various nanoobjects in nanoindustry, medicine, nanoelectronics, etc. This work deals with the development of a physical and mathematical model for the micro manipulation system. The system under investigation pertains to shape memory composite nanotweezers with the composition Ti2NiCu/Pt located at the tip of a tungsten microneedle. The activation and control of the nanotweezers is done by heating them by the passage of an electric current flowing through a microdiode located in the needle. The microdiode serves the twin purpose of Joule heating and temperature sensing/measurement so as to close the feedback loop of the control system. The prototype of the control system was manufactured and tested. The data from the simulation were compared with those from the preliminary experiments.

The elastocaloric effect (ECE) in latex rubber is experimentally investigated under periodic exposure to tensile force. ECE is measured as a function of elongation and frequency of cycles up to 4 Hz. It was found three ranges of the cycle frequencies in which the different thermodynamic processes were demonstrated: elastocaloric cooling, self-heating and decrease of ECE. The maximal measured value of ECE in latex rubber reached 14 K at relative deformation of the sample equal to 700% at frequencies from 0.1 Hz to 0.3 Hz. Also, the possibility of the practical use of latex rubber for elastocaloric based cooling is discussed.

A new technique for the production of nanograined alloys from rapidly quenched amorphous ribbons by serial electric pulses has been proposed recently [1]. The present work involves a theoretical study of electric current flow in a nonhomogeneous Ti2NiCu alloy consisting of an amorphous matrix with a crystalline phase of spherical morphology embedded in it. The electric current density distribution was calculated in the vicinity of a spherical nucleus, which has an electrical resistance that is only 0.4 times that of the amorphous matrix. The calculation of Joule heat density was done in the nucleus and in the amorphous volume surrounding it. It was shown that during the current pulse the Joule heat evolution in nucleus exceeds one in equatorial region in matrix, but less than near the poles. The dependence of relative resistivity of nonhomogeneous amorphous-crystalline alloy on volume fraction of spherical crystalline nuclei was calculated