Estudo experimental da interface entre fios e fitas de ligas com memória de forma Ni-Ti embebidos em matriz de silicone para o desenvolvimento de estruturas flexíveis.

Abstract

The present work evaluates the adhesion between Ni-Ti Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wires and ribbons embedded into a silicone rubber, for the development of flexible structures. Adhesion evaluation was performed through pullout tests. To perform the tests, six types of specimens were produced, in which the wires and ribbons were embedded in a silicone rubber matrix. Firstly, the ribbons were obtained by cold rolling of a superelastic Ni-Ti wire. After the cold rolling, the ribbons were subjected to heat treatment at different temperatures and times in order to obtain two types materials: one with Superelasticity (SE) property and other with Shape Memory Effect (SME). A Dow Corning 1200 Primer adhesion promoter was applied to the surfaces of the wires and ribbons to improve adhesion. Ni-Ti wire and ribbons and silicone rubber were characterized by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Dynamic-Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and uniaxial tensile tests, to obtain loss factor behavior, elastic modulus, tensile stress transformations and phase transformation temperatures. Analysis of tensile loading - unloading test on silicone rubber was also performed to evaluate the presence of the Mullins effect. For the qualitative verification of the roughness and adhesion improvement, generated by the cold rolling process and the application of the primer, respectively, images of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Dispersive Energy Spectroscopy (EDS) in the Ni- Ti wire and ribbons were performed before and after the pullout tests. The obtained results indicate that the Ni-Ti superelastic wires and heat treated cold rolled ribbons without primer do not present sufficient adhesion for the development of silicone rubber flexible structures with embedded Ni-Ti wires and ribbons, requiring the application of an adhesion promoter (primer) on the surfaces of the SMA.