Stress-strain behavior of porous NiTi alloys prepared by powders sintering

Porous NiTi shape memory alloys have recently attracted extensive interests for their potential use as biomedical materials. Stress-strain behaviors of porous NiTi alloy fabricated by element powder sintering in argon atmosphere were investigated in this paper by compression and flexural tests. The results indicated that the ultimate compressive strength and the flexural strength of the porous NiTi alloy depended on the densities of the porous NiTi alloy and the sintering conditions. In compression experiments, the pre-strain could completely recover while it was less than 2%. The shape recovery of porous NiTi alloy rested with the unique SME of NiTi phase and pores structure. The pores have adverse effects on the shape recovery of NiTi alloy under the experiment conditions. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.