Effects of ECAP and Aging on Mechanical and Superelastic Behaviors of Ti-Mo-Based and Ti-25at.%Nb SMAs

Ni-free Ti-based shape memory alloys (SMAs) are increasingly recognized as promising functional materials for medical applications. The mechanical properties of these metastable Ti-based SMAs are sensitive to aging and thermomechanical treatment. Effects of severe plastic deformation (SPD)-equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) and aging on superelastic behavior of Ni-free Ti-based SMAs, Ti-9.8Mo-3.9Nb-2V-3.1Al wt.% (TMNVA) and Ti-25at.%Nb, have been investigated. The results show that the yielding strength of TMNVA alloy increases sharply with the number of ECAP processes—to greater than 1,400 MPa after two passes ECAP—but elongation of TMNVA alloy decreases severely and the plasticity is lost completely after two passes ECAP. Both ECAP process and flash annealing treatment have weak contribution to the superelastic recoverable strains of Ti-Mo-based alloy. For Ti-25at.%Nb alloy, after one pass ECAP process at 400 °C, the yielding stress increases obviously, and the recovery strain increases a little. With the further increase in the number of ECAP processes, the yielding stress and the recovery strain change little. Aging treatment at low temperature after ECAP process is in favor of superelasticity of Ti-25at.%Nb alloy. An almost completely recoverable strain of 1.5% is obtained in Ti-25at.%Nb alloy after two passes ECAP and aging at 300 °C for 1 h. The mechanisms of the effects of SPD and aging are also discussed.