Rate-dependent domain spacing in a stretched NiTi strip

Superelastic fine-grained Nickel–Titanium (NiTi) polycrystalline shape memory alloys under tensile loading deform collectively via the nucleation and growth of macroscopic martensite domains. Recent experiments on a stretched NiTi strip showed that the number of nucleated domains (or the domain spacing) increased (decreased) with increasing applied stretching rate. It is also shown that the rate dependence of the domain formation is due to the coupling between the transfer of the locally released heat and the temperature dependence of the transformation stress. In this paper, a simple one-dimensional model is developed to quantify this effect of thermo-mechanical coupling on the observed domain spacing. Analytical relationship between the domain number, thermo-mechanical properties of the material, heat transfer boundary conditions and the externally applied strain rate is established. It is found that for the case of strong heat convection the domain spacing is inversely proportional to the applied stretching rate, while for the case of weak convection, the domain spacing is dictated by a power-law scaling with exponent −0.5. The latter theoretical prediction agrees well quantitatively with the experimental data in stagnant air.