Temperature and Time Dependence on Recovery Stress Relaxation in Nickel Titanium Wire during Isothermal Holding at High Temperatures

In this study, the influence of kinematically constrained thermal cycling (heating, isothermal holding and cooling) on the recovery stress in annealed nickel titanium wire was investigated. A 4% pre‐strained nickel titanium wire was heated to temperatures (150, 200, 250 and 300 °C) much higher than the austenite finish temperature. It was observed that the maximum recovery stress obtained at different conditions decreases significantly after the first thermal cycle and reduces gradually with further increasing the number of thermal cycles. It was also seen that the recovery stress increases with time during isothermal holding at 150 °C. During isothermal holding at other temperatures, the recovery stress shows an exponential decrease, and the decrease rate of the recovery stress depends on the isothermal holding temperature. The higher isothermal holding temperature is the more the recovery stress decreases. The decrease rate reduces with increasing the number of thermal cycles.