Mechanical Strength Evaluation of a CuAlBe Shape Memory Alloy under Different Thermal Conditions

Abstract

CuAl shape memory alloys containing 0.6wt% and 0.65wt% was casted by induction melting at room temperature without protective atmosphere and their mechanical strength evaluated as a function of the temperature. It was observed that the melting at room temperature does not promote any difficulty to control de beryllium content. The ultimate stress to rupture drop significantly with decreasing the test temperature is such way that the alloys became brittle irrespective to beryllium content.

Effect of Hot Rolling on the Thermomechanical properties of a Superelastic Cu-Al-Be-Cr Alloy

“…Cu-Al-Be system polycrystalline shape memory alloys (SMAs), modified with inoculant addition, have good shape memory and superelasticity properties, with a lower processing cost than conventional NiTi system SMAs, making them, attractive for technological applications [1][2][3][4][5] . In addition, Cu-Al-Be SMAs can be modified for use at low temperatures.…”

Grain size and temperature influence on the toughness of a CuAlBe shape memory alloy

“…The V-notch is the most important parameter to be considered in this kind of mechanical test and was machined using an electrical cutting tool specifically designed for this purpose. Finally, the samples were submitted to another heat treatment to obtain the shape memory effect [6,10]. Toughness of the samples was analysed at temperatures of −150, −100, −50, 0, 50, 100 and 150 • C. For temperatures lower than 50 • C, liquid nitrogen was used and the samples were stored in a thermal recipient.…”

“…From the studies that have been carried out, the most significant ones concern the quenching treatment effect on the reversible martensitic transformation [11], the stress analysis of the martensitic transformation [12], stabilization and hyper-stabilization [13], the microstructural characterization of precipitates [14], their superelastic behavior [15] and fatigue resistance [16] and the mechanomagnetic spectroscopy of ferromagnetic SMA [17]. Other studies are mainly related to the effect of the chemical composition of the alloys with and without the addition of grain refiner elements on the mechanical properties of the alloys, such as works presented in [4,6].…”

“…Other important characteristics include superelasticity, strong damping effect, excellent capacity to absorb sound, vibration and mechanical waves due to its coarse grain size [4], high mechanical strength, superior resistance to corrosion [5], low manufacturing costs, ease of manufacturing as well as its good usability at low temperatures. These outstanding characteristics justify its widespread use in numerous applications, such as pipe joining in the petroleum industry, as an efficient alternative to traditional pipe welding [6], and to attenuate the effects of seismic vibrations [7,8] and sonorous vibrations [4].…”

Evaluation of Nb-Ni Influence on the Mechanical Behavior in a Cu-Al-Be Shape Memory Alloy

“…Among different Cu-based shape memory alloys, the Cu-Al-Be exhibits a technological interest, due their properties such as mechanical damping capability [19,20], high mechanical strength [21] and resistance to corrosion [22,23]. This alloy has been considered for several applications such as petroleum industries [21,24] and design of seismic resistant structures, due to damping or internal friction, resulting in a significant quantity energy absorbed [25].…”