Pseudoelastic deformation and generation of reactive stresses in a Cu-Al-Ni shape-memory alloy in the temperature range 4.2–293 K

Pseudoelastic deformation and the magnitude of reactive stresses in Cu-14.2% Al-4.5% Ni shape-memory alloy single crystals were studied experimentally in the temperature range 4.2–293 K. It is established that pseudoelasticity and the shape-memory effect are observed in this alloy over the entire temperature range indicated above. It is found that, as the constrained samples are heated at a constant rate from liquid-helium temperature, the reactive stresses increase continuously at temperatures of up to 100 K and then remain constant. When the temperature of preliminary deformation is 77 K, the generation of reactive stresses with an increase in temperature occurs by two stages, which agrees with the multistage behavior of the pseudoelastic-deformation curves of this alloy above the liquid-nitrogen boiling temperature. Using the theory of diffuse martensitic transitions, a quantitative calculation is performed of pseudoelastic-deformation curves and reactive-stress curves over the temperature range 4.2–293 K under conditions of two-stage behavior of the martensitic transformation.