Experimental investigation of thermomechanical behaviour of NiTi shape memory alloy under low-velocity impact loading

Abstract This paper experimentally investigates the thermomechanical behaviour of NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) under low-velocity impact loading. The phase transformation temperatures of the NiTi material are measured by means of the Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) method. The impact tests are carried out on a drop hammer impact system, wherein force sensor and infrared camera are used to capture the thermomechanical behaviour of NiTi SMA. Several prime material features of SMA, such as superelastic stress-strain response, stress-induced martensitic phase transformation, residual deformation, heat production and energy dissipation, are observed in the drop hammer test of the superelastic NiTi sheet. Considering the impact test is an approximate adiabatic process, the temperature variation on NiTi sheet is highlighted, due to the latent heat and intrinsic dissipation. This temperature variation will affect the mechanical behaviour of SMA, and therefore bring about complex thermomechanical coupling effect in the low-velocity impact test.