Superelastic and shape memory properties of Ti x Nb3Zr2Ta alloys

The microstructure and phase constitutions of TixNb3Zr2Ta alloys (x=35, 31, 27, 23) (wt%) were studied. With a lower niobium content the grain size of β phase in TixNb3Zr2Ta alloys increased significantly, and the TixNb3Zr2Ta system was more likely to form α″ phase and even α phase. Tensile tests showed that UTS of TixNb3Zr2Ta alloys improved as the Nb content was decreased. Cyclic loading-unloading tensile tests were carried on TixNb3Zr2Ta alloys. Ti23Nb3Zr2Ta and Ti27Nb3Zr2Ta alloys featured the best superelasticity among the alloys studied. The pseudoelastic strain ratio of Ti35Nb3Zr2Ta alloy decreased a lot as the cycle number increased. Ti31Nb3Zr2Ta alloy showed only minimum superelasticity. This is because Ti23Nb3Zr2Ta and Ti27Nb3Zr2Ta alloys had higher yield strength than Ti31Nb3Zr2Ta did, which allowed martensite phase to be induced. On the contrary, Ti31Nb3Zr2Ta alloy exhibited better shape memory property than Ti27Nb3Zr2Ta, Ti23Nb3Zr2Ta and Ti35Nb3Zr2Ta titanium alloys. β phase, α phase and α″ phase were found in Ti23Nb3Zr2Ta alloy by TEM observation. The dislocation density of α phase was much lower than that of β phase due to their crystal structure difference. This may explained why Ti23Nb3Zr2Ta with α phase possessed higher tensile strength. The incomplete shape recovery of Ti23Nb3Zr2Ta alloy after unloading resulted from two sources. Plastic deformation occurred in β phase, α phase and even α″ phase under dislocation slip mechanism, and incomplete decomposition of α″ martensitic phase resulted in unrecovered strain as well.