Nonequilibrium Working Group: Working Group Seminar Abstracts

Avadh Saxena (T-11, LANL)

Date: April 10, 1997

Title: First Order Phase Transition in Shape Memory Materials

Abstract: Certain alloys such as NiTi have a remarkable property of "remembering" the high-temperature shape when cooled below the martensitic transition, arbitrarily deformed, and then heated above the transition temperature. This property has a lot to do with the microstructure (twinning, tweed) change accompanying the transition. We model these materials using a "phi^6" model (triple well potential) with shear strain as the order parameter. Evolution of microstructure is studied using relaxational dynamics. Interesting applications of these materials in aerospace industry and medicine will also be discussed.

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