Precipitate Phases in Several High Temperature Shape Memory Alloys

Initiated by the aerospace industry, there has been a great interest to develop high temperature shape memory alloys (HTSMAs) for actuator type of application at elevated temperatures. Several NiTi based ternary systems have been shown to be potential candidates for HTSMAs and this work focuses on one or more alloys in the TiNiPt, TiNiPd, NiTiHf, NiPdTiHf systems.;The sheer scope of alloys of varying compositions across all four systems suggests that the questions raised and addressed in this work are just the tip of the iceberg. This work focuses on materials characterization and aims to investigate microstructural evolution of these alloys as a function of heat treatment. The information gained through the study can serve as guidance for future alloy processing.;The emphasis of this work is to describe novel precipitate phases that are formed under aging in the ternary systems and one quaternary system. Employing conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high resolution high angle annular dark field (HAADF) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), 3D atom probe tomography (3D APT), as well as ab initio calculations, the complete description of the unit cell for the new precipitates was determined. The methodology is summarized in the appendix to help elucidate some basics of such a process.