Partial thermal cycling of NiTi

Effect of partial thermal cycling through incomplete B2 → B19′ martensitic transformation on the transformation behaviour of NiTi was investigated. This investigation was carried to assess the property stability of NiTi during operation in applications involving repeated transformation cycles. Partial thermal or mechanical cycling has been considered a remedy for more stable operation in such applications. It was observed that on equal transformation volume basis partial transformation cycling was less damaging compared to full transformation cycling. This observation is indicative that less structural damages are created during the early stages of the B2 → B19′ martensitic transformation and that incomplete transformation cycling has certain advantage in minimising the shift of shape memory properties of NiTi.