Exceptional superelasticity via heterogeneity-driven texture optimization in equiaxed CuAlMn alloys

Achieving high superelasticity in polycrystalline shape memory alloys is fundamentally limited by strain incompatibilities arising from grain orientation. Realizing high martensitic transformation strain ( ${\varepsilon _{{\text{TS}}}}$ ) orientations that are favorable for superelasticity in equiax...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xinghao Li, Ye Cui, Guangda Zhao, Lixin Sun, Yang Zhang, Zhongwu Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2025-01-01
Series:Materials Futures
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5724/adf3d1
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Summary:Achieving high superelasticity in polycrystalline shape memory alloys is fundamentally limited by strain incompatibilities arising from grain orientation. Realizing high martensitic transformation strain ( ${\varepsilon _{{\text{TS}}}}$ ) orientations that are favorable for superelasticity in equiaxed microstructures remains a major challenge. Here, a novel heterogeneity-driven texture optimization strategy is reported to enhance superelasticity in CuAlMn alloys through controlling high- ${\varepsilon _{{\text{TS}}}}$ orientations. Controlled deformation imprints dislocation density heterogeneity in differently oriented grains, leading to the gradients of sub-boundary energy. These gradients drive selective grain boundary migration, facilitating the preferential growth of grains with the high- ${\varepsilon _{{\text{TS}}}}$ <015> orientation. As a result, the fraction of <015>-oriented grains increases significantly from ∼19% to ∼70%, yielding a unprecedent tensile superelastic strain of ∼8.0% in equiaxed CuAlMn alloys, paving the way for practical engineering applications. This microstructural heterogeneity-guided strategy offers a general framework for overcoming texture-related limitations in polycrystalline functional materials.
ISSN:2752-5724