Fatigue tests on SMA bars in span control

The estimation of the fatigue lifetime of copper-based shape memory alloy (SMA) specimens in the form of bars is investigated in view of their use in passive devices for structural control applications. In the envisaged application, the pre-stress value assigned to the SMA bars is selected so that it is only slightly modified when strain variations occur within an operative range. This condition requires that the fatigue cycles are performed in span control, conversely to the common practice of driving the tests in load control to study the fatigue behaviour of traditional metals such as steel. Several experiments are carried out at different temperatures for different strain ranges and the results are arranged with the aim of building suitable fatigue models.