No abstract

The undesirable effects of hydrogen show significant alterations to the thermomechanical behavior of superelastic NiTi shape memory alloys. Through experimental results, the presence of hydrogen induces a delay of forward transformation. Added to that, hydrogen-induced expansion is clearly noticed. We also remark a loss of superelasticity. These effects occur according to the hydrogen absorption by the NiTi alloy. The aim of this paper is to develop a coupled diffusion-mechanical model of shape memory alloys, which regards the aforesaid effects of hydrogen on the thermomechanical behavior and the transformation mechanism of NiTi alloys. The model is derived from the relationship between the chemical potential of hydrogen and the thermodynamics laws. Furthermore, we introduce a special transformation hardening function that predicts stress–strain behavior well during the transformation plateau. The model is implemented in ABAQUS finite element analysis software through the UMAT and UMATHT subroutines. The simulation results present good concordance with the experiments.

The relaxation behavior under tensile loading of a superelastic NiTi alloy was investigated after hydrogen charging with respect to aging from one to 77 days in air at room temperature. The specimens were immersed for 3 h in a 0.9 % NaCl aqueous solution and then relaxed with an imposed strain of 4.8 %-which results in half of the martensite transformation-for different strain rates of 10-4 , 10-3 , and 5 9 10-3 s-1. For the non-charged specimens, the relaxed stress at the beginning exhibited a temporary dependence on the strain rates and then reached the same equilibrium stress after 2.5 h. After hydrogen charging, this equilibrium stress did not vary for the ascharged specimen. Nevertheless, the greater the aging period is the greater the equilibrium stress is. This behavior can be attributed to the diffusion of hydrogen into the entire specimen, which hinders the relaxation mechanism of the martensite bands.

The tensile behaviour of NiTi alloys is investigated after hydrogen charging during the austenite, half-transformation and martensite phases. The specimens are charged with different current densities and charging durations. During the tensile tests, the strain of the plateau transformation decreases due to hydrogen-induced residual martensite variants. This decrease becomes important when the charging happens during the martensite phase. Accordingly, the hydrogen ensures the stability of the phase in which the charging process occurs. Moreover, a heightening of transformation stress is noticed during the plateau. The transformation stress increases when the current density grows and the charging duration rises. This occurrence is caused by the interaction between the hydrogen and NiTi structures, where hydrogen delays the NiTi martensite transformation. This paper is part of a thematic issue on Hydrogen in Metallic Alloys

Thanks to its greater flexibility and biocompatibility with human tissue, superelastic NiTi alloys have taken an important part in the market of orthodontic wires. However, wire fractures and superelasticity losses are notified after a few months from being fixed in the teeth. This behavior is due to the hydrogen presence in the oral cavity, which brittles the NiTi arch wire. In this article, a diffusion-mechanical coupled model is presented while considering the hydrogen influences on the NiTi superelasticity. The model is integrated in ABAQUS finite element software via a UMAT subroutine. Additionally, a finite element model of a deflected orthodontic NiTi wire within three teeth brackets is simulated in the presence of hydrogen. The numerical results demonstrate that the force applied to the tooth drops with respect to the increase in the hydrogen amount. This behavior is attributed to the expansion of the NiTi structure after absorbing hydrogen. In addition, it is shown that hydrogen induces a loss of superelasticity. Hence, it attenuates the role of the orthodontic wire on the correction tooth malposition.