Effect of aging on the superelastic response of a single crystalline FeNiCoAlTa shape memory alloy

This study reports the effect of selected aging treatments on the superelastic response of < 100 >-oriented Fe-28% Ni-17% Co-11.5% Al-2.5% Ta (at.%) single crystals in tension. A smaller precipitate size and lower precipitate fraction of the samples aged at 700 degrees C for 7 h leads to lower transformation temperatures, a wide temperature range for superelasticity and higher transformation stress levels as compared to the samples aged at 600 inverted perpendicular C for 90 h. Both aging conditions results in fully recoverable transformation strain of 3.4% in tension. (C) 2012 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.