The damping properties associated with hysteretic behavior of the pseudoelastic stress-strain (σ -ε) curves of NiTi shape memory alloy (SMA) wires were studied. Damping was characterized for wires of 2.46 and 0.5 mm diameter using samples of 120 mm in length. The effect of the frequency and size of the wire on the σ -ε curves were studied in the 3 × 10 −5 -3 Hz range, with 8% maximal strain. Damping associated parameters, such as hysteresis width, dissipated energy and specific damping capacity (SDC), defined as the ratio between the hysteretic energy and the maximum strain work over a complete pseudoelastic cycle, show maximum values at a specific frequency for each size diameter. These findings were explained in terms of the temperature effects associated to the heat of transformation. Results show that NiTi wire of 0.5 mm diameter has the highest SDC when cycling around 0.1 Hz while wire of 2.46 mm diameter has the highest SDC at 0.01 Hz. At 1 Hz, the SDC for 0.5 mm diameter wire is around twice that of 2.46 mm diameter wire.

Two types of application in damping of structures by SMA in Civil Engineering are considered. The first one is related to the reduction of the damage produced by earthquakes. The second one is concerned with the increase of the lifetime of the stayed cables in bridges. The analyses of the experimental conditions required for each application are different: Several years or decades without any activity (excepted the summer-winter room temperature parasitic effects) followed by one or two minutes of oscillations under the earthquake affects, or near 100000 oscillations per day with pauses of several hours or days in the damping of stayed cables in bridges. This article analyzes the fatigue behavior of the CuAlBe alloy (appropriate for earthquakes) and of the NiTi alloy. Measurements of the damping of stayed cables indicate that the oscillation amplitude could be reduced up to one-third by using a NiTi wire as a damper device.

The dynamic response to different seismic inputs of an isolated structure disposed on a sliding layer and connected to the ground with a superelastic NiTi device was analyzed. The device allows wires of NiTi to be mechanically cycled by supporting externally applied tension/compression forces exploiting both dissipative and self-centering capabilities associated with superelasticity. Simulations were carried out modifying the wires length and the structural mass. Both parameters were varied over two orders of magnitude with the aim of evaluating the type of response, the mitigation level that can be accomplished and the combination of parameters resulting in an optimal response. Results indicate that the proposed device is suitable for seismic protection of isolated structures and it is demonstrated that the protective action is more related with the restraining and self-centering properties of the NiTi superelastic wires than with its damping capacity.

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The development of a 1D thermomechanical model for simulating the response of uniaxial superelastic NiTi elements is described. The formulation of the model includes consideration of the dependence of the critical stresses for forward and reverse transformation on the temperature, the occurrence of strain rate effects due to self-heating/cooling associated with the latent heat of the stress induced martensitic transformation, the localized character of the stress induced transformation in superelastic NiTi wires and ribbons, the possibility of nucleation events during both the forward and reverse transformations and the occurrence of non-recoverable residual strains. Numerical simulations allowed rationalization of different features commonly observed in experiments and their dependence on strain rate and environment conditions. Comparisons of numerical results with experimental cycles obtained in the present work and also with data published in the literature indicate the potentiality of the developed model as a design tool for simulating the response of superelastic materials subjected to realistic service conditions.

The hysteretic damping capacity and high recoverable strains characterizing the superelastic response of shape memory alloys (SMA) make these materials attractive for protection systems of structures subjected to dynamic loads. A successful implementation however is conditioned by functional fatigue exhibited by the SMA when subjected to cyclic loading. The residual deformation upon cycling and the efficiency in material usage are the two most restrictive issues in this sense. In this paper, a device equipped with superelastic NiTi SMA wires and capable of supporting external tension compression loads with optimized properties is presented. It is shown how the introduction of the wires' pre-straining allows for the absorption of deleterious residual deformation without affecting the self-centering capabilities upon unloading, in contrast with what occurs for pre-strained tendons. These features were experimentally verified in an inscale prototype composed of two 1.2 mm diameter superelastic NiTi SMA wires. In order to numerically assess the dynamic response of a simple structure subjected to seismic excitations, a multilinear superelasticity model for the NiTi wires was developed.

Abstract:The fabrication of engineered lattice structures has recently gained momentum due to the development of novel additive manufacturing techniques. Interest in lattice structures resides not only in the possibility of obtaining efficient lightweight materials, but also in the functionality of pre-designed architectured structures for specific applications, such as biomimetic implants, chemical catalyzers, and heat transfer devices. The mechanical behaviour of lattice structures depends not only the composition of the base material, but also on the type and size of the unit cells, as well as on the material microstructure resulting from a specific fabrication procedure. The present work focuses on the static and fatigue behavior of diamond cell lattice structures fabricated from an AlSiMg alloy by laser powder bed fusion technology. In particular, the specimens were fabricated with three different orientations of lattice cells-[001], [011], [111]-and subjected to static tensile testing and force-controlled pull-pull fatigue testing up to 1 × 10 7 cycles. In parallel, the mechanical behavior of fully dense plain and notched tensile specimens was also studied and compared to that of their lattice counterparts. Results showed a significant effect of the cell orientation on the fatigue lives: specimens oriented at [001] were~30% more fatigue-resistant than specimens oriented at [011] and [111].

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