Study of effect of aging on martensitic transformation and tribological properties of TiNi alloy using DSC, neutron diffraction, and micromechanical probing techniques

Recent studies have demonstrated that TiNi shape memory alloy exhibits excellent wear resistance, benefiting from their pseudoelasticity (PE) due to a thermoelastic martensitic transformation. The maximum wear resistance of the alloys corresponds to an optimum balance between the PE and hardness, which is strongly influenced by heat treatment. In this work, the effect of aging treatment on martenstic transformation behaviour, mechanical properties, including the pseudoelasticity and hardness, and wear behaviour of a Ti-51 at.-%Ni alloy was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry, neutron diffraction, and micromechanical probing techniques. The main objective of the study was to understand the aging effect on wear behaviour of the TiNi alloy and explore the mechanisms involved for further improvement of this novel tribo-alloy.