Experimental study of the biaxial cyclic behavior of thin-wall tubes of NiTi shape memory alloys

Combined torsion-tension cycling experiments were performed on thin-wall tubes (with thickness/radius ratio of 1:20, similar to that found for stents) of nearly equiatomic NiTi shape memory alloys (SMAs). Experiments were controlled by axial displacement and torsional angle with step loading involving torsional loading to a maximum strain, followed by tensile loading, and reverse-order unloading. The superelasticity of the material is confirmed by pure torsion and tension experiments at the test temperature. The evolution of equivalent stress-strain curves as well as the separated tensile and torsional stress-strain curves during cycling is analyzed. Results show that the equivalent stress increases greatly with a small amount of applied axial strain, and the equivalent stress-strain curves have negative slopes in the phase transformation region. The shear stress drops when the torsional strain is maintained at its maximum value and the tensile strain is increased. The shear stress increases with decreasing tensile strain, but it cannot recover to the original value after the complete unloading of the tensile strain. Attention is also paid to dissipated energy density and characteristic stress evolutions during cycling.