Molecular dynamics modeling of NiTi superelasticity in presence of nanoprecipitates

The presence of nano-sized coherent precipitates is well known to have crucial impact on the mechanical behaviors of a broad class of superelastic alloys. As a representative material, the pseudoelasticity of austenitic NiTi alloy in presence of a lenticular coherent Ni4Ti3 precipitate is investigated using atomic scale simulations. We predict the local stress gradient at the matrix-precipitate interface induced by inter-lattice atomic disregistry. The calculated stress distribution conforms to the latest high resolution electron microscopy measurements in the literature. Due to the presence of the local disturbance fields, the preference for activating different martensitic variants, given the uni-directionality thereof, is influenced substantially. The resultant constitutive attributes are thus observed to undergo adjustments in terms of reduced transformation stress, strain and hysteresis in general agreement with experimental literature. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.