Fadiga de fios superelásticos de liga com memória de forma NI-TI em regime de flexão alternada: uma análise usando planejamento fatorial.

Abstract

Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) belong to a class of metallic alloys that have unique functional characteristics: Shape Memory Effect (SME) and Superelasticity (SE). The Ni-Ti SMA system are the most widespread in the market and can be found in diverse applications covering mainly medical and odontology. However, many of these applications takes place under cyclic or variables loads, which makes it necessary to study the fatigue life of these materials. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze the fatigue behavior of Ni-Ti SMA superelastic wires with circular and rectangular, cross sections subjected to dynamic tests in simple bending mode (Single Cantilever) using a Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) equipment. The fatigue life of the Ni-Ti wires was evaluated by the number of cycles until break as a function of applied strain amplitudes during the mechanical cycling process. In addition, functional fatigue was assessed by monitoring the evolution of the applied force on the number of cycles for different deformation amplitudes (0.7, 1.0, 1.3 and 1.6%) and different levels of frequency loading (0.5 and 1.0Hz). The simultaneous influence of strain amplitude and frequency on fatigue life of the wires was assessed through a factorial design. It was observed generally that the strength under goes a slight increase of approximately 5% during the first cycles, tending to stabilize and remained virtually constant until starting a cyclic decay due to rupture process. It was also observed by means of Wöhler curves, that circular section wires has a higher fatigue life to that of the rectangular wires. The factorial design used allowed to obtain significant statistical models, predictive and well adjusted. Furthermore, the number of cycles to failure of the Ni-Ti wires depends directly of the cyclic strain amplitude and frequency of testing, to stand in the range 103 -105 cycles, characterizing a low cycle fatigue.