Stress-induced martensitic-transformation-related passive damping characteristics of TiNi fibres

Stress-induced martensitic-transformation-related passive damping characteristics of super-elastic TiNi fibres have been investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis. Effects of temperature and frequency on martensitic-transformation and the passive damping properties of TiNi fibres have been analyzed. It is found that the critical stress for inducing the martensite transformation decreases monotonically with decreasing temperature from 50 to −50 °C. The dissipated energy per unit volume per a load–unload cycle decreases gradually from 26.1 to 22.1 × 10−3 J/mm3 with decreasing temperature from 70 to 20 °C. However, the dissipated energy per unit volume per a cycle decreases dramatically from 13.8 to 3.3 × 10−3 J/mm3 with increasing cycling frequency from 0.007 to 0.033 Hz. Potential applications of super-elastic TiNi fibres for damping structures are discussed.