Temperature analysis of one-dimensional NiTi shape memory alloys under different loading rates and boundary conditions

Superelastic polycrystalline NiTi shape memory alloys under tensile loading accompany the strain localization and propagation phenomena. Experiments showed that the number of moving phase fronts and the mechanical behavior are very sensitive to the loading rate due to the release/absorption of latent heat and the material’s inherent temperature sensitivity of the transformation stress. In this paper, the moving heat source method based on the heat diffusion equation is used to study the temperature evolution of one-dimensional superelastic NiTi specimen under different loading rates and boundary conditions with moving heat sources or a uniform heat source. Comparisons of temperature variations with different boundary conditions show that the heat exchange at the boundaries plays a major role in the nonuniform temperature profile that directly relates to the localized deformation. Analytical relation between the front temperature of a single phase front, the inherent Clausius–Clapeyron relation (sensitivity of the material’s transformation stress with temperature), heat transfer boundary conditions and the loading rate is established to analyze the nucleation of new phase fronts. Finally, the rate-dependent stress hysteresis is also simply discussed by using the results of temperature analyses.