Effects of Alloying Additions on Fe-Mn-Si Shape Memory Alloys

Abstract

Fe-Mn-Si alloys are shape memory alloys which make use of the γ→ε stress-induced martensitic transformation. In this study, we report the effects of alloying additions on the shape memory effect (SME) of these alloys. It was found that the Ms temperature, the Neel temperature (T_N) and the volume of stress-induced martensite govern the SME. Through the optimization of these factors we found that new alloy systems such as Fe-28Mn-6Si-5Cr, Fe-20Mn-5Si-8Cr-5Ni and Fe-16Mn-5Si-12Cr-5Ni alloys could exhibit good SME along with good corrosion resistance. And it was also found that the thermomechanical treatment which improved the SME in Fe-Mn-Si base system was also effective to improve the SME of these new systems.