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Additive manufacturing of Cu-Al-Mn shape memory alloy with enhanced superelasticity

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Abstract

The Cu-based shape memory alloy (SMA) with highly oriented columnar crystals is an ideal candidate for the commercial application, especially the ones obtained through rapid cooling via additive manufacturing method. In this work, Cu71Al18Mn11 (at%) shape memory alloy with strong <001> texture columnar grains was successfully prepared by selective laser melting (SLM). An L27(313) orthogonal array was designed to systematically investigate the effects of laser power, scanning speed, scanning spacing, layer thickness and their interactions on the forming quality of Cu71Al18Mn11 alloys. Cu71Al18Mn11 alloys with density of 7.3204 g·cm−3 and relative density of 99.18% were successfully prepared when the laser power, scanning speed, scanning distance and layer thickness were 240 W, 1000 mm·s−1, 0.11 mm and 25 µm, the transformation onset temperature (Ms), martensite phase transformation termination temperature (Mf), austenite phase transformation onset temperature (As) and austenite phase transformation termination temperature (Af) are −21.84, −26.04, −15.75 and −12.36 °C, respectively. The compression strength and fracture strain along the building direction (BD) were significantly superior to the scanning direction (SD), while the superelasticity of compression along the SD reached 2.50%, which was better than that of 2.32% along BD. The mechanical property and superelasticity anisotropy due to the formation of columnar grains and texture were discussed. This study shows that SLM is a proposed method for the preparation of Cu-Al-Mn SMAs with high superelasticity, which provides a new strategy for enhancing the shape memory alloy superelasticity.

Graphical Abstract

摘要

具有高取向柱状晶的铜基形状记忆合金是商业应用的理想候选材料。在这项工作中，通过选择性激光熔化（SLM）成功制备了具有强<001>织构柱状晶的Cu71Al18Mn11（at%）形状记忆合金。设计了L27(313)正交阵列，系统地研究了激光功率、扫描速度、扫描间距、层厚及它们之间的相互作用对Cu71Al18Mn11合金成型质量的影响。当激光功率、扫描速度、扫描间距和层厚分别为240 W、1000 mm·s−1、0.11 mm和25 μm时，成功制备了密度为7.3204 g·cm-3，相对密度为99.18%的Cu71Al18Mn11合金，其Ms，Mf，As和Af分别为−21.84、−26.04、−15.75和−12.36 °C。沿生长方向（BD）的压缩强度和断裂应变明显优于扫描方向（SD），而沿SD的压缩超弹性达到2.50%，优于沿BD的2.32%。讨论了由于柱状晶和织构的形成而产生的力学性能和超弹性的各向异性。本研究表明，SLM是一种拟制具有高超弹性的Cu-Al-Mn SMA的方法，它为提高形状记忆合金的超弹性提供了一种新的策略。

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52272258), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2023ZKPYJD07), Key R&D and transformation projects in Qinghai Province (No. 2021-HZ-808) and Hebei Province (No. 21314401D). Acknowledgement is made to the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund for the support (No. PRF-59722-ND10).

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  1. Meng-Wei Wu and Zhuo-Fan Hu have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Meng-Wei Wu, Zhuo-Fan Hu & Rui-Ping Liu

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Bing-Bing Yang, Ying Tao & Chun-Mei Ma

  3. Institute for Advanced Materials and Technology, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Chun-Mei Ma

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, 99775-5905, USA

    Lei Zhang

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Wu, MW., Hu, ZF., Yang, BB. et al. Additive manufacturing of Cu-Al-Mn shape memory alloy with enhanced superelasticity. Rare Met. 42, 4234–4245 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-023-02353-6

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