Internal friction behaviors of Ni-Mn-In magnetic shape memory alloy with two-step structural transformation

The internal friction (IF) behaviors of dual-phase Ni52Mn32In16 alloy with two-step structural transformation were investigated by dynamic mechanical analyzer. The IF peak for the martensite transformation (MT) is an asymmetric shoulder rather than those sharp peaks for other shape memory alloys. The intermartensitic transformation (IMT) peak has the maximum IF value. As the heating rate increases, the height of the IMT peak increases and its position is shifted to higher temperatures. In comparison with the IMT peak, the MT peak is independent on the heating rate. The starting temperatures of the IMT peak are strongly dependent on frequency, while the MT peak is weakly dependent. Meanwhile, the heights of both the MT and IMT peak rapidly decrease with increasing the frequency. This work also throws new light on their structural transformation mechanisms.