Exploration of the hysteresis of martensite-austenite transition in bulk \b{eta}-Cu-Zn-Al single crystals

TL;DR

This paper introduces a high throughput experimental methodology to explore and optimize the composition of ta-Cu-Zn-Al single crystals for minimal transformation hysteresis, enhancing fatigue endurance in ferroelastic materials.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach combining gradient composition processing and local microstructure measurements to efficiently identify compositions with reduced hysteresis.

Findings

Minimum hysteresis found in Al-rich compositions of ta-Cu-Zn-Al.

Methodology effectively correlates microstructure observations with calorimetry data.

Potential for optimizing ferroelastic materials for better fatigue performance.

Abstract

Improvement of functional and structural fatigue endurance for applications of ferroelastic materials requires an optimization of their composition. A strategy for finding alloy compositions that minimize the transformation hysteresis is necessary. We propose an experimental high throughput methodology to explore the model \b{eta}-Cu-Zn-Al system. It is based on an original route to process bulk gradient composition single crystals to investigate fine variation of composition range coupled with local measurements of the austenite-martensite microstructure by light microscopy during the transformation. The latter method is compared with differential scanning calorimetry measurements. The methodology is applied in an Al-richer range of composition of standard CuZnAl SMA where a minimum of transformation hysteresis is observed.