Mechanical Evaluation of Selective Laser Melted Ni-Rich NiTi: Compression, Tension, and Torsion

Two unique behaviors of superelasticity and shape memory effect have made shape memory alloy such as NiTi, an interesting alloy for different applications. Recently, additive manufacturing (AM) as a powerful tool for fabricating NiTi has become of interest to make complex geometries. Selective laser melting (SLM) is an AM method that not only provides flexibility to make complex 3D shapes but also it can be possible to tailor the thermomechanical properties of the parts just by changing the process parameters. The non-homogeneous microstructure of as-fabricated parts as well as asymmetric mechanical behavior of NiTi, make it important to study the properties of SLM NiTi parts under different loading condition. In this study, Ni50.8Ti (at. %) powder was utilized to fabricate cube, dog-bone, and tube by SLM technique. The transformation temperatures (TTs) of samples were measured by the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) method and the variation of TTs was discussed. Three coupons were tested mechanically under compression, tension, and torsion. In-situ digital image correlation (DIC) was employed to measure and monitor the strain field of samples during the mechanical tests. The strain distribution showed localized strain for all three samples. The equivalent stress/strain was calculated to compare the result of compressive, tensile, and torsional responses and the significant asymmetric behavior was shown and discussed.