Elastic properties of Gum Metal

In situ X-ray diffraction measurements under tensile loading and dynamic mechanical analysis were performed to investigate the mechanisms of elastic deformation in Gum Metal. Tensile stress–strain curves for Gum Metal indicate that cold working substantially decreases the elastic modulus while increasing the yield strength, thereby confirming nonlinearity in the elastic range. The gradient of each curve decreased continuously to about one-third its original value near the elastic limit. As a result of this decrease in elastic modulus and nonlinearity, elastic deformability reaches 2.5% after cold working. Superelasticity is attributed to stress-induced martensitic transformations, although the large elastic deformation in Gum Metal is not accompanied by a phase transformation.