Crack growth of 10M Ni–Mn–Ga material in cyclic mechanical loading

The 10M martensitic Ni–Mn–Ga single crystal materials are usually applied in the magneto-mechanical actuators. Therefore, it is important to know the possible effect of the long-term cyclic shape changes on their structure and behavior. This can be evaluated with the mechanical fatigue testing. In the present study, the single crystal 10M Ni–Mn–Ga samples of different compositions were applied to strain-controlled uniaxial mechanical cycling in the multivariant state at ambient temperature. The experiments revealed distinctive changes of the twin variant structure, especially in the mobile twin area, density of twin boundaries, and in the tendency for fatigue crack growth. Characterization of the crack surface showed that the cracks in the microscale grow in a step-wise manner on specific crystallographic planes, i.e, twin boundary planes, but that the macroscopic crack does not occur only along crystallographic directions.