Effect of microstructure on the hardening and softening behavIors of polycrystalline shape memory alloys Part I: Micromechanics constitutive modeling

The effects of microstructure and its evolution on the macroscopic superelastic stress-strain response of polycrystalline Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) are studied by a microstructure-based constitutive model developed in this paper. The model is established on the following basis: (1) the transformation conditions of the unconstrained single crystal SMA microdomain (to be distinguished from the bulk single crystal), which serve as the local criterion for the derivation of overall transformation yield conditions of the polycrystal; (2) the micro- to macro-transition scheme by which the connection between the polycrystal aggregates and the single crystal microdomain is established and the macroscopic transformation conditions of the polycrystal SMA are derived; (3) the quantitative incorporation of three microstructure factors (i.e., nucleation, growth and orientation distribution of martensite) into the modeling. These microstructural factors are intrinsic of specific polycrystal SMA systems and the role of each factor in the macroscopic constitutive response is quantitatively modeled. It is demonstrated that the interplay of these factors will result in different macroscopic transformation kinematics and kinetics which are responsible for the observed macroscopic stress-strain hardening or softening response, the latter will lead to the localization and propagation of transformation bands in TiNi SMA. The project supported by the Research Grant Committee (RGC) of Hong Kong SAR, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Provincial Natural Foundation of Jiangxi Province of China