Austenite grain refinement during load-biased thermal cycling of a Ni49.9Ti50.1 shape memory alloy

A near-equiatomic NiTi shape memory alloy was subjected to a variety of thermomechanical treatments including pure thermal cycling and load-biased thermal cycling to investigate microstructural evolution of the material under actuating conditions. In situ and post mortem scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) was used to study the effects of stress on the development of defect substructures during cycling through the martensitic transformation. High temperature observations of the austenite phase show rapid accumulation of dislocations and moderate deformation twinning upon thermomechanical cycling. Additionally, TEM-based orientation mapping suggests the emergence of fine crystallites from the original coarse austenite grain structure. A possible mechanism is proposed for the observed grain refinement based on the crystallographic theory of martensite transformation.