Effect of Nb content and heat treatment temperature on superelastic properties of Ti-24Zr-(8-12)Nb-2Sn alloys

The effects of Nb content and heat treatment temperature on the superelastic properties of Ti-24Zr-(8-12)Nb-2Sn alloys, developed for potential biomedical applications, were investigated by tensile testing. The Ti-24Zr-10Nb-2Sn alloy exhibited excellent superelastic properties: its superelastic recovery strain increased with increasing heat treatment temperature and reached 7%, which is twice that of other Ni-free Ti-base superelastic alloys. This was explained by the evolution of the strong {0 0 1}〈1 1 0〉 recrystallization texture.