Thermo-mechanical modelling of a superelastic shape-memory wire under cyclic stretching-bending loadings (Q5946074)

Materials of shape-memory alloy (SMA) type exhibit the superelastic effect, i.e. the capacity of undergoing large deformations in loading-unloading cycles without showing residual deformation at the end of the cycles. Experimental investigations on superelastic SMA wires show significant dependence of load-displacement response on the loading-unloading rate, and this is associated with the variation of temperature. Here, taking into account these facts, the authors construct an elaborate thermomechanical model suitable to study the response of a superelastic SMA wire under cyclic stretching-bending loadings. The main features of the model are: a) the principal assumption, of kinematical nature, that the sections which are plane in the undeformed configuration remain plane in the deformed configuration, and the wire shear deformation is negligible. Thus it is natural to consider a one-dimensional constitutive stress-strain equation for describing the local mechanical behavior of the material; b) the model is cast within the general theory of continuum thermodynamics with internal variables; the thermodynamic state is described by external (controllable) variables of uniaxial strain and absolute temperature, and an internal scalar variable of the martensite volume fraction satisfies an evolution equation; c) the model is thermo-mechanically coupled because it accounts for internal heat sources in the form of phase-transition latent heat and mechanical dissipation. The inclusion of the thermo-mechanical coupling makes it possible to explain experimentally observed effects in SMA when tested at different loading rates; d) the model facilitates the development of a computational framework for the simulation of SMA devices made of beam elements with generic cross-section and undergoing complex cyclic loadings.