Orientation dependence in superelastic Cu-Al-Mn-Ni micropillars

The superelastic behavior of single crystal Cu-Al-Mn-Ni shape memory alloy micro-pillars was studied under compression as a function of crystallographic orientation. Cylindrical pillars of about 2 mm diameter were micro-machined from targeted crystal orientations. While pillars oriented close to the [001] direction showed the largest total transformation strain (similar to 7%), plastic deformation dominated the compressive response in the pillars milled close to the [111] direction due to their high elastic anisotropy combined with the large stresses required to induce the transformation. Shape strain contour plots were constructed for gamma' and beta' martensites, and the martensite start stress was calculated using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. The same general trends are observed in both the experimental and calculated results, with some exceptions: larger transformation stresses and lower transformation strains are observed in the microsized pillars. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.