Phase proportioning in CuAlBe shape memory alloys during thermomechanical loadings using electric resistance variation

The microstructure of shape memory alloys changes with the thermomechanical history of the material. During thermomechanical loading, austenite, thermally-induced martensite or stress-induced martensite can be simultaneously present in the material. In applications integrating SMA parts, utilization conditions seriously affect the microstructure and can generate macroscopic strain or stress. Consequently, during thermomechanical loadings, it is important to be able to proportion the different phases and consequently to understand the kinetic transformation. This is very useful in the development of constitutive equations. This study shows, by a series of tests, that the proposed experimental method, based on the measurement of the variation of electric resistance of CuAlBe wires, permits to determine the volume fraction of the different phases present in the material (i.e., austenite, stress-induced martensite and thermally-induced martensite). The proposed method is applied to the most common thermomechanical behavior met in engineering applications of shape memory alloys: pseudoelasticity, pseudoplasticity, recovery-stress and stress-assisted two-way shape memory effect. The proportioning method based on a mixture law integrating the resistivity of pure phases present in the SMA is first performed on different two-phase mixture cases and then applied to a three phase mixture case.