Crystallographic orientation and stress-amplitude dependence of damping in the martensite phase in textured Ti–Nb–Al shape memory alloy

The low-frequency damping (tanδ) of a strongly textured β-titanium shape memory alloy (SMA) was investigated by a dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) in a tensile mode together with a tensile test and a crystallographic analysis of the transformation. In addition to the high background of tanδ in martensite, a broad tanδ peak with a relaxation-like character was found in the martensite phase similar to the Ti–Ni SMAs. There was a critical stress for the broad peak that corresponds to the stress to complete the martensite variant reorientation, whereas the high background of tanδ had no critical stress. This implies that the broad peak is generated through the long-range motion of twin boundaries. A guideline to estimate the orientation dependence of damping in textured SMAs is also proposed using the interaction energy between the external stress and the transformation.