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Linking a completely three-dimensional nanostrain to a structural transformation eigenstrain

Nature Materials volume 8, pages 752–757 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Ni–Ti is one of the most popular shape-memory alloys, a phenomenon resulting from a martensitic transformation. Commercial Ni–Ti-based alloys are often thermally treated to contain Ni4Ti3 precipitates. The presence of these precipitates can introduce an extra transformation step related to the so-called R-phase. It is believed that the strain field surrounding the precipitates, caused by the matrix–precipitate lattice mismatch, lies at the origin of this intermediate transformation step. Atomic-resolution transmission electron microscopy in combination with geometrical phase analysis is used to measure the elastic strain field surrounding these precipitates. By combining measurements from two different crystallographic directions, the three-dimensional strain matrix is determined from two-dimensional measurements. Comparison of the measured strain matrix to the eigenstrain of the R-phase shows that both are very similar and that the introduction of the R-phase might indeed compensate the elastic strain introduced by the precipitate.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of lens-shaped Ni4Ti3 precipitates.
Figure 2: Observation of Ni4Ti3 precipitates in a zone orientation.
Figure 3: Observation of a precipitate in a orientation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Belspo project entitled ‘Physics based multilevel mechanics of metals‘ under the IAP framework, contract number P6-24. D. Schryvers would like to thank MULTIMAT ‘Multi-scale modelling and characterization for phase transformations in advanced materials’, a Marie Curie Research Training Network (MRTN-CT-2004-505226) for supporting this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. EMAT, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, B-2020, Antwerp, Belgium

    Wim Tirry & Dominique Schryvers

  2. COBO, KMS, Renaissancelaan 30, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium

    Wim Tirry

Authors
  1. Wim Tirry
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  2. Dominique Schryvers
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Contributions

W.T. carried out the microscopy, analysed the images, evaluated the obtained results and wrote the paper, D.S. provided the project planning, contributed to the evaluation, discussed the data and commented on the paper.

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Correspondence to Wim Tirry.

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Tirry, W., Schryvers, D. Linking a completely three-dimensional nanostrain to a structural transformation eigenstrain. Nature Mater 8, 752–757 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2488

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