Thermomechanical modeling on the crack initiation of NiTi shape memory alloy

Abstract

The fracture of shape memory alloys is distinct from that of conventional metals, owing to the coexistence and interaction of multiple special features such as martensitic transformation, dislocation-induced plasticity, thermomechanical coupling and others. In this paper, the impact of thermomechanical behavior upon the crack initiation of a NiTi shape memory alloy under Mode I loading is investigated numerically and verified experimentally. A constitutive model incorporating phase transformation, plasticity and thermomechanical coupling is established. Via backward Euler integration and finite-element implementation, the longitudinal strain, martensite volume fraction and temperature field in the vicinity of the crack tip are furnished. The effects of grain size and loading rate on J-integral are revealed. The grain size dependence of crack initiation is non-monotonic. For the samples with grain sizes of 1500 nm, 18 nm and 10 nm, the shielding effect takes place in front of the crack. Additionally, the anti-shielding effect is detected for samples with grain sizes of 80 nm and 42 nm. The parametric study shows that loading rate imposes limited influence on J-integral, which is attributed to a small scale transformation. The decrement of yield stress and the increment of transformation hardening modulus can alleviate the anti-shielding effect and arouse the shielding effect upon crack initiation. The presented results shed light on the design and fabrication of high toughness phase transformable materials.