Effect of alloy composition on phase transformation behavior of Zr-Cu shape memory alloy

抄録

In the current study, we investigated the effect of alloy composition and heat treatment on the microstructure, thermal properties, and hardness of near-equiatomic Zr-Cu alloys. Zr-Cu alloys with near-equiatomic compositions were fabricated by an arc-melting method. Furthermore, some samples were heated at 800 ℃ for 1 hour an electric furnace, and then quenched in water. The samples, both before and after quenching, were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and Vickers hardness testing. It was confirmed that the Zr-Cu alloys consisted of three intermetallic compounds, ZrCu, Zr₂Cu and Zr₇Cu₁₀. The volume fractions of these intermetallic compounds were affected by the alloy composition and quenching. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the fabricated Zr-Cu alloys exhibit martensitic and reverse martensitic transformation with cooling and heating processes, respectively. However, the martensitic and reverse martensitic transformation temperatures showed very little change with varying alloy composition and quenching. In contrast, it was found that the Vickers hardness does change varying alloy composition and quenching.